Future Paths
by Holy Chaos
Summary: The genin of Team Seven get a brief look of what the future may hold. COMPLETE
1. Prologue: Meeting

Naruto

Future Paths

Prologue: Meeting

Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Kishimoto Masahsi-sensei, not me, which should be obvious. If it did the art would be a lot worse as I can't draw to same my life and Hinata and Tenten would get moer appearances. No porfit is being made from this and if you feel like suing my, tough, I'm broke and that doesn't look to change any time soon.

Haruno Sakura scratched her head in confusion as she looked intently at the map and then up at their surroundings. It simply didn't make any sense, but to be absolutley certain she checked the scale and ran the calculations in her head for what felt like the hundreth time. The still fell out the same and even at the most conservative estimates they should have reached Maki Town at least an hour ago. And it wasn't like the town was hard to miss as it was a large town and overlooked by by Castle Maki which perched atop the largerst hill in the vicinity and should have stuck up over the surrounding forest. With a sigh she was forced to admit defeat. "That's it!" she declared to her teammates. "We're lost. Completely and utterly lost. We should have reached Maki Town over an hour ago but we've obviously missed it and I unless someone can find some sort of landmark, I can't find where we are on the map."

"How can we be lost?" Naruto demanded grumpily, jumping to his feet from where he had been sitting on a fallen log. "There hasn't been a fork in the road since we started out this morning, so its not like we could have taken a wrong turn."

Much as it galled Sakura to admit it, but her loudmouthed teammate had a point. Both the map and their own experience showed that the road didn't branch anywhere between Horai City where they had started from that morning and Maki Town. There wasn't even any markings for side trails or game paths. She wasn't about to give Naruto the satisfaction of telling him that he was right though so she turned her attention to the third member of their team. "Sasuke-kun, can you see anything?" she called out to Uchiha Sasuke who was currently standing atop the tallest tree they could find and looking for any sign of their destination, or any landmark that they could use to locate themselves.

"Nothing!" he called back, turning down to face them and jumping lightly from branch to branch to reach the ground. "It's forest as far as I can see."

Sakura sighed and wondered what else could go wrong. The mission had been plaugued with problems from the start. First they had been ambushed only a few hours from the walk from Konha by a pair of Mist-nin and if it hadn't been for Sasuke's intervention both she and Naruto would have been dead. Then when they finally reached the Wave Country they were attacked again and this time by a Missing-nin from the Village of the Mist. And not just any Missing-nin either, for Sakura recognised the blade he carried as one of those belonging to the Hidden Mist's Seven Swords. Once again they barely escaped alive, this time courtesy of some admittedly quick thinking on Naruto's part. Then they had been attacked again while guarding the bridge and Sakura still wasn't sure of all that had happened as most of her view of events had been completely obscured by the mist that Zabuza had conjured up. And now, to cap it all off, one their way back to Konoha they got lost in the middle of nowhere.

"Kakashi-sensei do you have any idea where we are?" Sakura all but wailed, turning to Team Seven's Jounin-sensei.

The elder Leaf-nin looked up from his book, 'Icha Icha Paradise,' and shrugged. "You're guess is as good as mine," he said laconically. "If you can't find where we are on the map, I don't have the faintest clue as to how to get back to Konoha.

Sakura wanted to scream in frustration at Kakashi's laid back attitude, but she knew that losing her temper would be counter productive. Besides she was half convinced that Kakashi's apprent lack of skills at navigating were feigned so that the three genin would be the ones forced to find a solution. "Looks like we have only two options," Sakura said. "We can try and retrace the path to Horai City, but there's no telling where we'll wind up then since we have no idea how we got _here_ in the first place. Our second option is to wait for night and use the stars to navigate while we travel overland."

"My, my. Such a serious tone for one so young," a new voice interrupted, making all four shiobi look up in surpsise. Emerging from the trees was a woman older than anyone the three genin had ever seen before. Her back was bent almost double with age and the fine, wispy hair that surrounded her head had passed through grey and silver and was no completely white. Her face was a maze of wrinkles, broken only by a rather prominent nose that showed the red blush and broken veins on one who had knocked back a few too many drinks in their younger days, a toothy grin framed by a pair of thin lips and two eyes, unclouded by age that were so dark that they almost seemed black and twinkled with a hidden mirth. One wrinkled hand, swollen and thick with athritis gripped a polished wooden walking stick while the other twitched the nondesript grey shawl that sat over her shoulders, almost seeming to blend to with nondesript brown kimono that she wore.

"Though you're probably right to be worried child. That man you call your teached couldn't find his way out of a wet paper bag without a map and written directions."

"Charming as ever I see Mai-donno," Kakashi said, rising from where was was seated and putting his book away. "I never expected to see you again."

"Few ever do you young rascal. Still reading those dirty books I see. They'll rot your mind, mark my words!"

Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke were all looking between Kakashi and the woman, presumably Mai, looking for all the world like spectators at a tennis match until Naruto voiced what they were all thinking in one way or another. "Kakashi-sensei, you know this old woman?" Naruto asked with his habitual lack of tact.

Mai snorted. "Old woman! Watch your tongue you scamp. I may be old but I'll wager I can still put you flat on your backside if I've a mind to."

Naruto looked scpetical but held his tongue and Mai nodded.

"That's better. Now as it so happens I do happen to know rooster-head here and as I said he couldn't find his way out of a paper bag without help and its getting late. So unless you want to spend the night out in the rain, you'd better come with me."

"Rain?" Sasuke asked. "There wasn't a cloud in the sky just a few minutes ago."

Mai snorted again. "Don't believe me boy? Take my word for it. The weather around here can change faster than you'd think, especially this time of year." As if to confirm the accuracy of her words far off in the distance a rumbe of thunder sounded and already the afternoon sunlight was growing dimmer. "Now as I was saying, unless you want to spend a night out in the rain, you'd best come with me. I live nearby and while its not much, there should be room for everyone and it will keep out the wind and the rain."

"We would be delighted to accept your gracious invitation," Kakashi said, very formally.

"Hmmph. Your tongue's still as glib as ever I see. Still I don't often get company and I'll not leave anyone out to face the sort of the weather that's on its way."

With that she turned and headed back into the trees the way she had come, Kakashi close on her heels, leaving the rest of Team Seven no choice but to follow. They threaded their way through the close growing trees and shinobi or not, all three genin were hard pressed to follow on the difficult trail and even Kakashi experienced some difficulty, though Mai just walked calmly through it, never seeming to make a single misstep and barely having to duck to avoid stray branches.

For all her sure footedness, Mai didn't move all that fast and as she was the one setting the pace it took them several minutes to reach the clearing. When they did finally emerge in the clearing, it was easy enough to see the small cottage that Mai called home, even in the growing gloom. Small was the operative word, for just looking at it it couldn't contain more than two or three rooms. One one side of cottage smoke drifted lazily out of a small terracotta chimney, while from the other emerged an enclosed walk way that led to what was presumably the outhouse. "Well, come on then," Mai said, urging them on as yet more thunder rumbled in the distance. "Don't stand around staring all day. We've got to get this place closed up before the rain hits."

The three genin nodded and rused ahead of the old woman. The thin bamboo and rice paper _shoji_ were already closed, but they were no protection against wind and rain so they all raced around the exterior of the house and pulled across the heavier wooden storm shutters, a task so simple that even Naruto couldn't even mess up, though true to form he was the only one who had shutters that stuch on their rails. By the time Mai hobbled up the step all the shutters on three sides of the cottage, bar one that had been left open to allow entry, had been closed and the fourth side, from where the chimeny emerged, was stone and brick. "Such obedient children," Mai said with a smile before turning to look at Kakashi. "Which is more than could be said of you and your teammates."

Kakashi just shrugged and though it was hard to tell under the mask he wore, he seemed to be smiling.

"Well, you'd best come in," Mai said to the three genin. "I've got a meal cooking right now and it shouldn't be too long now."

Naruto perked up immediately at the mention on food but to her eternal embarrsement, it was Sakura's stomach that rumbled. She blushed, but Mai just laughed and went inside, Naruto and Sasuke trailing right on her heels. Sakura followed a bit further back though Kakashi was still the last to enter. The inside of the cottage wasn't spacious by any means. The entire front half was taken up by a combination living room and kitchen. The stove was set againt the far wall, at a slightly lower level on a tiled floor, while the rest of the room was covered with tatami mats. There were three doors, exluding the one they had entered through. One was set in the outside wall and presumably connected to the walkway that led to the outhouse while the other two led presumably to the Mai's sleeping room and a spare room of some description.

"Well it looks like dinner is almost ready," Mai said, hobbling over to the stove and lifting the lid on the pot of something that smelled absolutley heavenly. "I'll just get some bowls out and…"

"I'll do that," Sakura offered, intercepting Mai before she could bend too far. "It's the least I could do."

Mai smiled again. "Such a sweet child," she muttered as Sakura removed five ceramic bowls from the small cupboard. They were all a little chipped, but still servicable, as were the bamboo chopsticks sitting next to them.

The stew was served up in short order and Team Seven found themselves sitting around the table that occupied a large part of the room, Kakashi and Naruto on one side, Sakura and Sauske on the other and Mai at the head. "Itadakimasu!" the all chorused and the picked up the chopsticks.

Rather than helping themselves to the stew infront of them though, all three genin turned questioning gazes on their jounin-sensei. Kakashi returned them levelly for several long moments and then sighed. With his free hand he reached up and pulled down the mask that covered the lower half of his face. "Happy?" he asked his students, who just nodded, a little dumstruck.

"Why Kakashi, you've been keeping secrets," Mai cackled. "I never knew you were such a good looking young man."

"That's why I wear the mask," he replied, a little sullenly, picking up his bowl and beginning to eat.

The sudden revelations of their sensei's good looks was not enough to quell three teenage appetities either, and once they shook off the surprise, they too began to eat, or in Naruto's case, devour. The rest of the afternoon and evening seemed to pass in a blissful lassitude with the only thing truly standing out being Naruto's devouring of several more bowls than the rest of his teammates. Sakura had tried to reprimand him, but Mai had waved her off, saying that it was a joy to cook for young appetites. Other than that, time seemed to pass with an almost dreamlike pace until, the storm outside starting to reach its height, Kakashi stood up and declared that it was time for the four shinobi to turn in.

Sakura was given the spare room all to herself by virtue of being the only female in the group, while Kakashi, Naruto and Sasuke pushed the table to one side and spread out the spare futons that Mai had provided on in the living/dining room. As Mai hobbled into her own room after pointing out the door to the outhouse and Sakura retired to the spare room Kakashi and the two male genin curled up into their blankets and soon drifted off and Sakura was not far behind. In her room Mai sensed her guests dropping off to sleep and smiled. All she had left to do was wait.

Author's Notes:

Here endeth the prologue.

Its not long, but its not meant to be and the individual chapters won't be much longer than this either, or at least so I hope. For those of you who didn't pick up on it (and if you didn't why not, I was trying to make it as obvious as possible) this takes place after the end of the whole Wave Country Story Arc but before the Chunin Exam starts.

Next Up: Mai's intentions are revealed and Sakura takes centre stage. You'll see what I mean.


	2. Chapter 01: Cherry Blossoms in the Wind

Naruto

Future Paths

Chapter 01: Cherry Blossoms in the Wind

Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine (phooey!).

Spoiler Alert: Whilst I won't try and put spoilers in, the very nature of this fic will lend itself to potential spoilers so this is forewarning.

Rating Alert: Some of the situations in this fic will not be pleasant and whilst I have no intention of going into graphic detail I thought it best to give advance notice.

Sakura awoke with a start, sitting bolt upright and throwing the borrowed blankets off her upper body. It took her few moments to get her breathing and heart rate under control, but once she did, she wondered what it was that caused her to wake to suddenly. For better or worse Sakura was the sort of person who could never remember her dreams, so it was entirely possible that she had been having a nightmare, but normally in those cases her sheets got all tangled and soaked with sweat. Another possibility was that she had been woken by a particularly loud peal of thunder, for outside the cottage walls the storm still raged. Of course it could just be sleeping in unfamiliar surroundings, though that hadn't been a problem at Tsunami-san's house in the Wave Country.

Still since she was awake it was probably a good idea to take care of those nagging signals from her bladder. It wasn't urgent, but it would stop her from getting back to sleep anytime soon. So she pulled the blanket off her legs and rose to walk over to the door, moving with the silence that only a shinobi could, even one as inexperienced as she was. In the other room she snuck past Naruto, Sasuke and Kakashi, stifling a giggle at the odd chorus their snores made, Naruto's open mouth muted buzz saw, Sasuke's a breathy hiss and Kakshi's muffled nasal whistling. What was really funny though was that their breathing had fallen into a rhythm making a very odd three part harmony.

That kept Sakura amused on her trip to the outhouse and back and it earned another smile as she slid open the door to the spare room where she was sleeping. The door slid shut with a faint click of wood on wood behind her and suddenly Sakura realised that though it was the same door she had exited through on her way out, the room she had just entered was not the same she had been sleeping in, seeming to stretch off into infinity in all directions. Sakura's first thought was that it was some form of genjutsu and opening the door again would break that sense of limitless expanse, but when she groped for the door behind her, all she encountered was thin air. She backed up several long steps that should have not only put her through the wall, but left her standing right on top of Naruto, but she still encountered nothing but emptiness.

It was then that she began to realise that infinite darkness wasn't quite as dark as she first thought. In the distance a singling pinprick of light appeared out of the blackness. It was soon joined by another, then a third, fourth and fifth. After ten appeared, they began popping up so fast that Sakura was unable to keep track of how many. In the space of just a few minutes the blackness was retreating rapidly under the light of millions of stars that stretched off into the distance, arching overhead and sweeping underfoot and giving off more light than the full moon.

Revealed in that light was the stooped and wrinkled form of Mai, still clutching her staff. Sakura couldn't be certain whether it was just a trick of the light or if she had actually changed clothes, but Mai's kimono and shawl were a glittering silver white and her white hair seemed to literally glow in the moonlight. Sakura approached the old woman cautiously, really wishing for her kunai holster or shuriken pouch, but they were back in the room where she had been sleeping and there seemed to be no way of getting to them.

"I'm not going to hurt you child," Mai said, a touch impatiently. "If I had wished you any ill will I just would have slipped something in your stew."

"Then what do you want?" Sakura asked, standing straighter, but still eyeing the old woman cautiously.

"I'm here to show you something. Your future."

"My future?" Sakura asked a little nonplussed.

"Your future," Mai confirmed. "What you see before you is no genjutsu, at least not as you'd understand it. Even Konoha's vaunted Sharingan and Byakugan can't tell this for anything other than reality nor any other skill possessed by ninjas that I know of. It is a place that is not a place and in a time that is not a time. From here it is possible to see all that has come before and what may lie ahead."

"Why are you showing me?" Sakura asked, perplexed.

"Not just you," Mai corrected. "Your team-mates as well, at least the boys. I did the same for Kakashi when he was a genin under the Fourth Hokage and I did the same for the Fourth and his team-mates when they were genin under the Sannin Jiriya, just as I did for the Sannin when they studied under Sarutobi, the Third Hokage. Among others," she added as an afterthought. "It is my gift, to be able to show others whom I judge worthy to see what may be. That you are under the tutelage of one who has already received my gift would be enough where there not other considerations."

"Kakashi-sensei did act like he knew you," Sakura noted.

Mai nodded. "Now, enough talk child. It is time for you to see what you can see, though a few words of warning first. What you see may be unpleasant so just remember what you see is not what _will_ be, but what _might_ be. Now look."

She pointed with her staff to some spot off in the distance at Sakura felt compelled to see where it pointed. What she saw was one of the multitude of stars, whose numbers were still growing, rushing towards her. Though she knew it came closer, Sakura could not tell how she knew, for it did not grow brighter, nor did it seem to grow larger. Then the glowing point of light smacked her right between the eyes and all Sakura could see was bright light and then nothing.

Konoha had fallen. The once proud Hidden Village of the Leaf was no more, its buildings flattened, its guardians annihilated and the civilian inhabitants systematically slaughtered. There could not be more than a handful of survivors who had fled when the destruction commenced, somehow managing to break through the lines of attacking Sound-nin with their lives, but no more than that. Those within the village's boundaries that still remained were shackled and guarded carefully, destined either to be executed or kept as slaves to be put to work in the Hidden Village of the Sound and many would consider the first a mercy.

The battle had not been without its cost for the Sound though. The Hyuuga, Head Clan and Branch Clan fully united had inflicted devastating casualties before falling and no one knew how many had fallen to the Proud Green Beast of the Lead and the Beautiful Blue Beast of the Leaf when they showed the true power of the Renge and opened the Gate of Death. The combined onslaught of the two remaining loyal Sannin even turned the tide of the battle, but only briefly for even united Jiriya and Tsunade were no match for the third of their number as he was. So they had died and the Leaf with them.

But a few of the Leaf-nin had been spared, though not out of any sort of compassion. Uzumaki Naruto, the vessel of Kyuubi had been subdued at high cost and spared as a peace offering to Akatsuki from Orochimaru while others had been spared on Orochimaru's orders for far less… pleasant reasons.

Sakura hung from chains in what used to be an ANBU incarceration facility wishing that she had died in the battle rather than face what she was certain was coming. Had she possessed the strength she would have found some way to kill herself their and then, possibly using the chains that secured her to the wall to strangle herself, but even if she wasn't so utterly exhausted one of the Sound's medic-nins had forced a vile concoction down her throat that had made all her muscles go completely slack, making her hang like a marionette with half its strings cut. Hanging next to her Ino was in much the same shape, drugged and motionless. The third prisoner was probably in even worse shape, for when they dragged Hinata in just over an hour ago her forearms and lower legs had been twisted and mangled possibly beyond repair and when she had been suspended from the chains around her wrists like Sakura and Ino she had quite quickly passed out from the pain.

In a way that was probably a blessing for the shy Hyuuga girl who was probably the head of her house by now. At least she had been spared the witnessing the spectacle of what came next. Mitarashi Anko had been dragged in, kicking and screaming and half delirious from fear. Orochimaru had been waiting for her and after a long winded speech about how she had betrayed him and how she deserved to be punished for it, he had handed her over to his four, or five depending on how you counted, Guardians of the Gate and left instructions that she was to be left alive and sane enough to regret her actions before Orochimaru delivered the her final punishment at his leisure.

Unable to look away as her head was pulled upright by a strap and unable to summon up enough control to close her eyes, Sakura was forced to look on as his subordinates had followed Orochimaru's orders with a sickening delight and Sakura knew that no matter how much she wanted to she would never be rid of the memories of what she had seen, or the sound of Anko's screams. What really sickened Sakura though was while what the men had done was bad enough the woman, Tayuya had been even worse and it was only Jirobu's reminder that Orochimaru wanted Anko alive that stopped her.

But the four Sound-nin had finished with their fun, at least for the moment, and Anko, barely alive by the looks of her, had been taken away. The straps binding Ino and Sakura's heads had also been cut, letting them flop forward, unable to get a clear view of anything. Footsteps echoed through the room and Sakura found herself looking at a pair of sandled feet. A strong hand gripped her chin and forced her to look up, unable to resist the inexorable pressure until she found herself looking into a face that was at once very familiar and very alien.

It was very familiar because the face bore the features of Uchiha Sasuke, Sakura's former team-mate and the object of her affection. She had engraved his features on her heart for years and knew them better than her own, which was why it was so frightening to see them so altered. Sasuke had never had skin that was so pasty white, almost like some lichen that grew in sunless caves, and he had never had two purple marks running from the corner of his eyes down the length of his nose, almost to his upper lip. And most certainly his eyes had never been slit pupiled yellow. The reason for all that though was because the mind staring out from behind those eyes was that of Uchiha Sasuke but of Orochimaru. The rouge Sannin had finally gotten his wish and possessed the body of an Uchiha, granting him the power of the Sharingan.

"So you're Sakura," Orochimaru said in his hideous parody of Sasuke's voice. "Not much to look at but your precious Sasuke-kun's memories tell me that you have something of a talent for genjutsu."

Sakura tried to reply to that, but all that came out was a helpless gurgle that made Orochimaru smirk. He let go of her chin and let her head fall painfully forward and out of the corner of her eye Sakura could see that he stood in front of Ino. "And you're Ino. You and your father gave us some serious trouble girl with those mind-control jutsus. Fortunately he's dead, but I've got an idea to keep you around to see if the talent for that breeds true."

There was another pause and the sound of more footsteps. "And the heir to the precious Hyuuga. Konoha's strongest! Well I've a mind to see what happens when the Sharingan and Byakugan are recombined, so count yourself lucky otherwise I would have killed you outright for all the slights your family dealt me while I lived here." There was yet another pause and then, "Bah! She's unconscious! Well, time for that later."

He moved to stand in front of Sakura again. "For now," he said, forcing her to look upward, "you'll do."

He grinned widely and suddenly a snake came shooting out of his mouth, wrapping around Sakura's neck and constricting, but not cutting off her air supply while still keeping her head upright. At the same time Orochimaru's hands tore the shredded remnants of her clothing of her body while he pushed up against her. Sakura fought back tears as his hands roamed over her body and then….

She was back in the star studded void once again, having fallen to her knees, hands braced on whatever surface it was that supported her and her breath coming in great, ragged gasps.

"A bad vision?" Mai asked gently to which Sakura only nodded, still not able to speak. "It happens," Mai noted. "Just remember, the future is not locked in stone and can always be changed."

That helped, but it still took Sakura a long time to regain some sort of emotional equilibrium. Still kneeling, she looked up at Mai. "Is that it?" she asked.

"Hardly child," Mai scoffed. "As I said there a myriad of possibilities and while I can not show everyone, I would be doing a very poor job of this if I showed just a single one. Are you ready?"

Sakura nodded, just a tad uncertainly and Mai pointed again. Once again Sakura felt her gaze drawn to where the staff pointed. Just like the first time a star seemed to rushing towards Sakura, though it grew no larger and no brighter. The shock of it sticking her right between the eyes was a little less this time, possibly because she was ready for it, but it still didn't stop her vision from whiting out and fading to blackness.

It was a soft gentle rain that fell upon Konoha and more than one person commented on how it seemed like the heavens themselves were weeping for the fallen. Rain or no, the funeral was held outdoors, though as a concession to the weather a heavy shade cloth had been erected to keep the rain off the mourners. After the service itself was over the two heavy urns bearing the ashes would be taken and sealed within the shrine under Hokage Mountain, the final resting place for all shinobi who died in service of the village and who had no one to claim their earthly remains.

Sakura stood at the forefront of the larger group of mourners, her eyes downcast and her face blank. No matter how much she tried, she could not erase those final horrifying minutes from her mind. It came upon her when she least expected it, haunting her dreams and her waking hours. Now, at the funeral she could not escape it and it played over and over in her mind and it was only made worse by how utterly alone she felt. For all that she was surrounded by other mourners; they might as well have been on the moon or another planet. It was nothing overt, but there was a distinct sense of separation between her and the other black clad mourners.

What hurt even worse were the whispers. They thought she couldn't hear them, but she did and even here at the funeral it didn't stop. It didn't matter though; she knew them all by heart. It was her fault that they were dead, if she wasn't so weak and useless they wouldn't have died protecting her, she was a worthless failure and thanks to her two of the most promising of the Leaf's young ninja were dead. It all amounted to the same thing though. It was her fault and many around her wished that she had died with her team-mates and with no one to turn to there were times that Sakura felt the same way. Her parents had tried but not being ninja themselves they couldn't truly understand, Kakashi was to withdrawn in his own grief and Ino was longer even talking to her.

Finally the priest stopped talking and stepped back to allow the assembled mourners to pay their respects individually in front of each urn. The line was longer by far for the urn that was fronted by the black silk swathed slightly out of date photo of Uchiha Sasuke. Many there had barely known him, if it all, but they had had friends amongst the Uchiha Clan before the night that Uchiha Itachi had massacred all but Sasuke and they didn't mourn him so much as they mourned the passing of the Uchiha Clan. Sakura let them pass her, unresisting and the most attention any of them payed the pink haired girl was to pointedly ignore her.

The line of mourners at the urn that held Naruto's ashes was much shorter for in truth many could not forget that he was the vessel of the youkai that had nearly destroyed the village all those years ago. What it lacked in size it more than made up for in notable members. Everyone recognised the face of Konohamaru, the Third's grandson who had made a name for himself as the village's resident prankster once Naruto had graduated from the Academy. Also there was Iruka, for it was no secret that he was something of a surrogate father figure to Naruto. One of the ones who really stood out was Jiriya, one of the Sannin and self styled Hermit of Toad Mountain for few knew that he had served as Naruto's mentor for a time. Even more noticeable was Tsunade one hand clutching at the necklace that until recently had hung around Naruto's neck until her knuckles turned white, attended closely by her omnipresent aide/apprentice Shizune.

They were not the only ones either, for the small crowd included several members of the so called 'Rookie Nine,' including Inuzuka Kiba, accompanied as always by his canine partner Akamaru and Hyuuga Hinata who stood close by the side of her cousin Hyuuga Neji. Eventually Neji stepped forward to pay his respects, but Hinata hung back until he was finished, his face even more inscrutable than it had been before and his white eyes betraying nothing of what he felt. Hinata knelt before the table upon which the urn for several minutes, her lips moving but no sound reaching anyone else's ears, save perhaps Akamaru's.

When at last she rose, she turned to go, but as she turned her eyes swept the crowd of mourners still gathered in front of Sasuke's picture and she caught sight of a shock of pink hair. Even those who were present could scarcely believe the change that came over the heir of the Hyuuga at that moment. In the moment between one heartbeat and the next her Byakugan activated and she was charging at Sakura with a wordless scram of pain and anguish. She brushed aside those in her way like gnats and before anyone could react she was on the other kunoichi.

"It's your fault!" Hinata screamed as she hit Sakura in the stomach. It wasn't that hard a blow, but with the Jyuken it didn't have to be. Pain blossomed in Sakura's abdomen as another blow caught her in the chest, right over the heart as Hinata yelled, "If it wasn't for you he'd still be alive!"

It was then that Sakura felt a sharp pain blossom in her chest and the world started to go dark as Tsunade and Neji wrestled Hinata off her. The last thing that Sakura was aware of was Hinata collapsing in Tsunade's arms and weeping. The thought flickered through her mind that she probably deserved what Hinata did before the darkness claimer her once and for all and….

She woke up once again in the star strewn void, this time flat on her back and Mai standing over her. "Are you all right child?" the old woman asked, frowning, though it was hard to tell considering how many wrinkles lined her face.

Sakura just stared upwards for nearly a minute before say, "Are all my futures going to suck?"

Mai cocked one bushy eyebrow. "Two bad visions in a row? That is a stroke of bad luck. Still I've yet to meet anyone who never saw anything good in their future, even that brat Orochimaru, so how but we try for something a little less unpleasant this time around. When you're ready of course."

Sakura just got to her feet, a little unsteadily and nodded. For the third time Mai pointed her staff and for a third time Sakura's gaze was drawn to where it pointed. For a third time one of the stars in the distance raced towards her and this time Sakura didn't even flinch as it struck her right between the eyes. Whiteness once again engulfed her and faded to black.

Sakura sighed as she lowered herself into the almost scalding hot water of the onsen, wincing a little as she put a bit too much weight on her bad hip before settling into a comfortable position and letting the hot waters soak at all the aches and pains. She simply lay there for who knew how long, luxuriating in the heat of the faintly mineral scented waters, the rest of the world fading away into the steam as she let her mind wander.

In many ways she was a fortunate woman, she mused. Despite suffering a near crippling hip injury not long after finally making chunin, she had not been forced to retire like so many others would have in her position. She was still counted as one of Konoha's top theoretical shinobi and that landed her a position as a teacher at the Academy where having to use a cane to walk any sort of distance was only a minor hindrance. That still hadn't been enough for Sakura for in their years of their association some of Naruto's ambition must have rubbed off on her and she was no longer content to end out her days as just a teacher at the Academy.

So in her spare time she had collected every scroll and book ever written about genjutsu and studied them with a fervour. She had even gone so far as to have Naruto sneak the Scroll of Seals away from Tsunade so that she could make copies of all the genjutsu that it contained. They had actually pulled that one off without anyone ever suspecting, which is more than could be said of the other time that Naruto had purloined the scroll. So every waking moment that wasn't dedicated to her duties at the Academy was spent in the study and practice of what she learnt on those scrolls. She kept those studies secret from everyone save Naruto and she had only let him in on the secret because she needed his help in getting the Scroll of Seals.

When she finally unveiled the knowledge to the entire village they had been stunned to say the least, and not just for her genjutsu skills but also that she discovered the trick of forming seals with one hand, all untaught.. The looks on their faces had been worth all the effort and sleepless nights and the look of pride on the faces of her former team-mates had been the sweetest reward of all. When all the commotion died down she had been invited into the Hokage's office and offered the rank of special jounin and a transfer to ANBU's Torture and Interrogation squad. She had been a little uncertain about the transfer but as Tsunade had explained her bad hip would prevent her from taking a field role ever again and the only other place she would ever be able to make full use of her skill in genjutsu would be in ANBU, so Sakura had accepted. It turned out that she needn't have worried for someone as adept at genjutsu as she was rarely, if ever, had to take part in the physical torture sessions. In fact ANBU policy preferred the use of genjutsu and deception in interrogation as it meant that the subject was far less likely to realise that they had revealed important information.

Sakura's musing was interrupted by the sound of someone else sliding into the water. It was a public onsen so Sakura wasn't exactly put out by the arrival of someone else, but she wondered who it could be at this late hour. Looking up she was surprised to see Tenten, the weapon specialist sliding into the water with a grace that all taijutsu specialists, armed or unarmed, seemed to pick up in time. "Sakura-san," she said, acknowledging the other woman's gaze as she settled herself.

"Tenten," Sakura said, nodding. "What brings you to the onsen so late?"

Tenten sighed. "It was a long day I thought I deserved to treat myself. After a day out training in the snow I needed to soak some heat into my bones."

Sakura nodded. It was one of the reasons she came to the onsen so often in the winter, for the cold made her hip ache fiercely. "So how are those three genin you're in charge of doing?"

Tenten sighed again. "They were the reason it was such a long day." She pulled one lock of chestnut hair that was liberally sprinkled with grey forward. "I swear its having to try and teach not one but three Inuzukas at once is responsible for half these grey hairs."

Sakura chuckled at that. The stories she had heard from Kurenai about Kiba had been bad enough and she shuddered to think of what Tenten was going through with three members of the Inuzuka clan. Before either woman could say anything more on the matter though they were interrupted by the sounds of a tiny pair of bare feet slapping on wet stones and a voice calling out in a childish soprano, "Obasan! Obasan!"

Coming right behind the voice was the owner of the voice, Sakura's granddaughter Uchiha Miyabi, running into the bath room. She was so excited that she didn't notice where the floor ended and the water began until it was almost too late. She skidded to a halt right on the water's edge, her little arms windmilling wildly in an effort to stay dry. It was almost in vain, but she was close enough for Sakura to reach out and lend a steadying hand. Safe from a drenching she stood back and gave her grandmother gap toothed grin.

"Shouldn't you be in bed young lady?" Sakura asked in her best stern grandmother voice.

"Nuh-unh!" Miyabi replied with a vigorous shake of her head. "Papa said I could stay up late 'cause it's a special day."

"And what's so special about it?" Sakura asked.

"This!" Miyabi said proudly activating her Sharingan. Miyabi was not just the darling of her family because she was too cute for her own good, but because when she was born her Sharingan had already been active, though only a single dot had whirled around her pupils. Now that she looked closely Sakura could see that a second dot had joined the first in left eye.

Sakura smiled proudly. "That's very good Miyabi, pretty soon your eyes will be like your Mama's, but did you come all the way here just to tell me that?"

Miyabi blinked in confusion, her eyes going back to their normal black and then shook her head. "Mama said that I should come to the onsen to tell you that Ojisan is back early.

Sakura's eyes widened and she pulled herself out of the water, one hand grabbing for her cane. "Sorry about this," she said to Tenten, but the weapon specialist just waved it off.

"It's all right," she said. "We can catch up some other time."

Sakura nodded and limped as fast as she could to the changing room, not even bothering to dry off as it was a simple matter to mould her chakra to cause all the water to run off her body, leaving her dry. It was a simple variant of the water walking exercise and one that almost every shinobi picked up sooner or later. Getting dressed was a somewhat lengthier matter but Sakura managed, mostly by dint of long practise. After that it was a simple matter of limping after Miyabi as fast as she could back to the place she called home.

Gathered in front of her house were her children, all five of them. Sora, the eldest who also happened to be Miyabi's mother, Maaya the next eldest, Mariko, Tsutako and Yuki, the youngest and smallest even after he had reached his full height and the only boy. Sora and Mariko also had their husbands their as well, Shuichi and Kaneda. Rounding out the gathering were some of Sakura's older grandchildren, including Miyabi's elder brother Akito. All of them clustered around blocked the view of the person Sakura wanted to see the most, but as they noticed her approach they seemed to melt away.

Sakura was still half a block away from the threshold when she found herself swept up in a kiss that was passionate enough to take her breath, even after so many years. "I missed you," she said, reaching up to place one hand on her husband's cheek while her eyes noted the new grey hairs that had appeared in his absence.

"I missed you too," Sasuke murmered back.

"How about the next time Naruto wants you to go on these long missions we tell him where he can shove it, Hokage or no."

Sasuke just grinned at that but made no reply, which was perhaps the wiser course of action. "In the mean time," he suggested, changing the topic, "I believe that you and I have some catching up to do." He kissed her once again, lifting her right of her feet as he did so and this time the kiss was a promise of things that were to come in the very near future. Cheered on by catcalls from their children and some of the neighbours who had turned out to see what the commotion was about, Sasuke carried Sakura to their doorstep and across the threshold, using his feet to firmly close the door behind him.

The transition out of this vision was a lot smoother, though Sakura wasn't sure if it was because of the nature of the vision's end or simply because she was getting used to it. All she knew for certain that when she became the star strewn emptiness where Mai had brought her she had a silly grin on her face and a blush on her cheeks that could have fried an egg at fifty paces.

"This was more… satisfactory?" Mai asked, her appearance outwardly grave and serious but the grin was audible in her voice.

"Oh yeah," Sakura said, nodding. "Very… satisfactory." She rubbed at her hip in remembered pain. "A few drawbacks but the perks definitely out weigh them. Though you couldn't have let it go on a bit later?"

Mai cackled at that. "Patience child," she chided Sakura. "Your time will come and there's no reed to rush things." She paused and rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "Now I think one more vision that we should call it a night. You're not the only one I have to see, after all. Are you ready?"

Sakura nodded rather emphatically.

"Then take one more look at what the future may hold."

For the fourth and final time Mai pointed her staff and Sakura didn't even try to fight it as her gaze was drawn in the direction it pointed. The star that it summoned forth seemed to move faster than the others, screaming towards Sakura like the proverbial bat out of hell and just before it hit, Sakura felt a slight tingling sensation, not unlike pins and needles wash over her. She gasped in surprise as the whiteness engulfed her once more and faded to black.

Sakura felt a rush of pride as she looked over village. She didn't have the telescopic vision of a Hyuuga to pick out the details, but she could guess at them, even from a distance. Runners were constantly coming and going from the Hokage's office, racing through the streets and over the rooftops in an effort to convey the last minute orders and messages where they needed to be. It was a credit to the fact that they were so well trained that there weren't any collision, though there were several close calls, especially close to the Hokage's office where runners coming literally raced each other to get more favourable positions in the queue.

Elsewhere other residents of the village, ninja and civilian alike raced about making last minute additions and adjustments that adorned every building in the village to impress the foreign dignitaries. It made for a rather eye catching display, though not always a harmonious one for not everyone bothered to consult with their neighbours about what they were doing, resulting in some rather jarring clashes. Even the stuffy and uptight Hyuuga had even deigned to join in the decorating spree, though there subdued displays had nothing on some of the other displays like the wild riot of reds, yellows and golds that adorned the Inuzuka compound.

Truth be told Sakura was glad to be well out of it. She more than enough displays of one-upmanship from her team-mates to last her several lifetimes and you couldn't pay her to put up with the stress that some of the people were putting themselves through. The medic-nins and civilian chemists in the village had been handout antacid like it was water, but it was still pretty much guaranteed that there would be ulcers before the entire thing was over. Where it not for the fact that she was too good a medic and too skilled with regenerative jutus Tsunade would have been prime candidate for one for the responsibility for organising the upcoming celebration was her responsibility and not one that could be taken lightly. It was hardly everyday that the Mizukage, the Kazekage, the Tsuchikage, the Raikage, the leaders of all the other minor Hidden Villages, the Great Lords of Fire, Thunder, Earth, Water and Wind and representatives and leaders from all the minor nations descended on Konoha. Rumour had it whoever the head of ANBU was, a secret was that kept even from the Hokage, would eventually reveal themselves by having a heart attack brought on by the stress of managing the security details.

Sakura wasn't the only one staying out of it though and the two others stood to either side of her atop Hokage Mountain and to those who knew them well enough it was quite plain that they were as pleased as Sakura was to be avoiding the barely controlled chaos below. To her left Sasuke stood, apparently cold and aloof but tiny signs in his stance and on his face as he looked at those below them quite clearly said how glad he was that he was not among their number. On the other hand, to Sakura's right Naruto seemed to be taking an almost perverse glee in watching everyone race around in a state of near panic. He even made wagers on the likelihood of a collision between the message runners, wagers that his team-mates refused to take.

After a time the commotion, at least in the immediate vicinity subsided at everyone made their way to the arena where the opening stages of the festivities were to begin. That was also to the three team-mates for make their own way to the arena to fulfil their own parts in the ceremony. By Tsunade's direct order they were to make their entrance as impressive and memorable as possible and they had pondered long and hard how to do that. They had finally come to an agreement, but they were keeping it a secret from even Tsunade until they unveiled it at the ceremony, which was in less than a quarter of an hour.

They all looked at each other and nodded in unison, preparing themselves for what was to come.

Sasuke closed his eyes and sighed as waves of opal fire washed outwards from a point on his neck to cover his body, his Sharingan activating as he opened his eyes again. No one was exactly sure how it had been done, but Orochimaru's curse seal had been transmuted into something else, more benevolent but no less powerful for that.

On Sakura's other side formed a completion seal and concentrated momentarily before he was suddenly surrounded by a corona of burning red chakra, unleashing the power of Kyuubi, though in truth it was only a fraction for he had learned far greater control than when Jiriya had first taught him to consciously summon the power. Controlled by the seals placed by the Fourth Hokage and tamed by Naruto's will, the great youkai was his to command.

Sakura took a moment to check that her tonfa were secured at her hips and then narrowed her concentration down to a circle of green tattoos over her heart. With a single mental commanded she awoke the seals they represented from their dormant state and gasped as the now familiar rush of power flooded through her body, verdant green markings writhing as they stretched and grew to cover all but the palms of her hands and the soles of her feet. Though she could only glimpse them out of the corners of her eyes Sakura knew that every so often flickering green flamelets would seem to come away from her body, almost on life she on fire while the power rushing though her even caused her hair to stir, though there was only a faint hint of a breeze.

"Shall we go show what Konoha can do gentlemen?" Sakura asked, her eyes dancing as they focused on the distant arena.

Sasuke just smiled tightly while Naruto gave a feral chuckle. "Let's give that dried up old stick of a Mizukage a memory that he'll carry to his deathbed whether he wants to or not," he suggested.

Sakura barked a short laugh at that and then they were off to show their guests just what Konoha's finest were capable of.

When Sakura came back to herself she was still tingling with the rush of power she had experienced in the vision. Never in her wildest dreams had she ever dreamt that such an awesome force would be hers to command and its effects, even if only remembered from a vision were intoxicating.

Mai smiled as she watched Sakura stare at her hands, as if in disbelief, opening and closing as if to somehow convince herself what she had just experienced was real. "A touch of power then to bring us to a close," she murmered, too soft for Sakura to hear, but enough to get the pink haired kunoichi's attention. "Well child," she said in a more normal tone of voice. "That will be enough for tonight I think. You've seen the heights and the lows. You've fair warning of what to avoid and hope for what might be and that's all anyone can really ask in the end. Now before you seek your bed again, have you anything you want to ask?"

Sakura looked at the old woman for a long moment; eyes narrowed slightly and then said, "Are you a kami?"

Mai laughed at that, long and hard, until her gut was fit to burst and she was folded nearly in two to try and keep upright. "No child," she said at some length, wiping tears of mirth from her eyes. "I'm no kami. I'm just an old, old woman with a gift that I'm bound to use, for good or for ill. That reminds me, there are some things I must tell you before you leave.

"The first is that when you wake in the morning, you will not remember what has transpired this night. It is part of the price that those who part the veils of time must pay, though fear not for this was not all for naught. Though the knowledge may be taken from your mind," one withered finger rising to point at Sakura's head before drooping down to point at her chest, "the heart will still know. And if there is one thing I have learned in my many years is that which comes from the heart is just as potent, if not more so than that which comes from the head.

"The second is that should are paths ever cross again you will remember what has transpired, at least for a night. Should that ever come to pass, remember that what I showed you here was but a fraction of all that might be and seek not to chastise me if your life has taken a path that you did not see this night. If you should forget this, I promise that you will regret your lapse. Do you understand?"

Sakura nodded, somewhat taken aback as the seriousness of Mai's manner and the threat implicit in Mai's last statement.

Mai's manner softend again as Sakura nodded. "Good, now get back to bed. You and your friends will have to be up early in the morning if you want to reach your home before nightfall."

Sakura looked around uncertainly. "Um, how do I get back?"

Mai laughed and pointed again, but this time Sakura felt no compulsion to look at where the staff pointed. She looked anywhere and saw a door hanging in the void, though she would swear that it hadn't been there when she had looked just a second ago.

She slid the door open and sure enough the spare room in Mai's cottage with her things next to the futon in the middle was right there, just as she had left it. Sakura risked one look back, but the stars were fading and all she could see was Mai making shooing motions with her hands. She stepped out of the void and into the room. When she looked back this time all she could see was the main room with three sleeping forms laid out on the floor. Shaking her head Sakura slid the door shut and curled back up on her own futon. The rain that still fell outside beat out a tattoo on the wooden screens that soon lulled her back into a deep sleep.

Author's Notes:

And here endeth Chapter 01. My aplogies about some of the formatting errors in the prologue, but they've been corrected (I hope).

As regards Sakura's vision, I'm not sure if it crossed the line in the ratings, so if you think I should up it, let me know.

Next up is Saskue

Chapter 02: A Kaleidoscope of Lightning and Vengance.

Competition closed. There were two winners, Xoni Newcomer and final eternity, neither of whom chose to give answers in the detail I was looking for. Still, many thanks and virtual cookies to both of you.


	3. Chapter 02: A Kaleidoscope of Lightning ...

Naruto

Future Paths

Chapter 02: A Kaleidoscope of Lightning and Vengeance

Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine. If it was do you think I'd be wasting time writing fanfiction about it?

Spoiler Warning: Same as last chapter. I won't try and put spoilers in, but they may appear.

Sasuke frowned as some vague prompting from the depths of his subconscious pushed him from his dreams and into the waking world. Drowsily he shook his head and looked around. Nothing seemed amiss and that didn't change as he pushed himself into a sitting position. To either side of him Kakashi and Naruto snored on, oblivious to whatever had wakened him while outside the rain continued unabated, though the worst of the storm seemed to have passed as it was no longer accompanied by thunder and lightning. Cautiously Sasuke activated his Sharingan, but even that did not reveal anything out of the ordinary. Still, something had caused him to awaken and he wasn't about to go back to sleep until he discovered what it was. There was something about Mai and the entire situation that had put him on edge since the beginning.

Following the vague promptings that had awoken him in the first place, Sasuke rose on silent feet and padded over to the door leading to the room where Sakura slept. Alone and isolated as she was, Sakura made the most logical target for an attacker and the fact that she was the least powerful member of the team made it even worse. He stepped over Naruto, the blonde shinobi's breath tickling his bare legs as he passed, but Sasuke ignored it. He was quieter than a shadow as he drifted over to the door that led to where Sakura was sleeping. As quietly as was possible, which was pretty damn quiet for someone who had gotten top marks in stealth at the Academy, he eased open the door and stepped in.

Sakura lay curled up under the blankets on the futon she had been loaned, her frame rising and falling with each breath. Sasuke watched for several seconds longer, just to make sure she was fine. He stayed around long enough to see Sakura turn over so that she faced him, her eyes still closed and pulling the blankets tighter around her as she went. Her eyes were still shut though and a faint smile touched her face as she murmured, "Sasuke-kun," in a tone of voice that made the blood rush to Sasuke's face. Satisfied that Sakura was safe and more than a little embarrassed Sasuke backed out of the still open door and closed it, making slightly more noise than when he had opened it.

Turning around he was greeted not with slumbering forms of Kakashi and Naruto but an utterly featureless void. He had not yet let his Sharingan return to a dormant state, but even it could not see anything but endless black that stretched of into infinity. Fighting back a rising tide of panic at having been cornered, Sasuke's hands flashed out in a set of seals for a fire element technique, but before he could unleash the stream of flame, he saw a light wink into existence in the distance. This was followed by another and a then a third and Sasuke let his accumulated chakra dissipate as these first three were joined by another three, and then a dozen and then hundred more beyond count, surrounding him and filling the void with soft silvery light.

Sasuke turned around, wishing briefly that he had the Hyuuga's Byakugan rather than Uchiha's Sharingan so that he could see all of it in a single glance. As he returned to the facing roughly the same direction he was greeted with the sight of Mai, standing there and leaning on her staff, though Sasuke could have sworn she hadn't been there when he looked moments earlier. Once again he fell into a defensive stance, hands hovering just a few centimetres apart and poised to form any number of seals. "Oh relax boy," she said dismissively when she saw what he was doing. "No harm will before you in this place that you don't bring upon yourself.

Sasuke didn't move and Mai's eyes narrowed in suspicion as she looked at him.

"All right then," she said grumpily. "Since you choose not to believe me, perhaps I should show you what happens here."

She pointed her staff and Sasuke felt his gaze being drawn inexorably towards where it pointed. He tried to fight it, but his body refused to obey his commands and his head and eyes turned of their own volition. What he saw once his gaze was locked firmly on the spot where the staff pointed was that one of the stars had detached itself from the blazing mass of its fellow and was rushing straight toward him. He tried to move, but his body once again refused to answer his commands. He couldn't even close his eyes when the brilliant point of light struck him between the eyes, whiting out his vision, Sharingan or no, before fading to blackness.

Sasuke knelt over Itachi's fallen frame, his hand buried in his brother's chest up to the wrist and still crackling with residual chakra from his use of Raikiri and his breath came in ragged gasps. He was dimly aware of the sounds of battle in the background as Sakura, Kakashi and Naruto battled with the ragged remains of Akatsuki, but for Sasuke the entire world had focused down to him and his brother's corpse. A tiny part of Sasuke sorrowed for the lost opportunity for a few last words between them, but the Raikiri was too powerful, tearing straight through Itachi's heart. He died before he hit the floor. The rest of Sasuke was simply to numb to feel anything at that moment.

But within that numbness a feeling stirred, a feeling akin to that Sasuke felt the first time his Sharingan had activated in the battle on the bridge with the Mist Missing-nin Haku. Somewhere in the deep, dark corners of the dark haired Leaf-nin's psyche a floodgate opened and through it flooded raw power. Sasuke threw back his head and opened his mouth in a silent roar of mixed anguish and exhilaration as the power surged through him; changing him in tiny, subtle ways, save for his eyes. The changes in his eyes were far from subtle and Sasuke could feel them shifting and warping and in that instant he knew what those changes heralded. The onset of the Mangekyou Sharingan, the ultimate expression of the power held by the Uchiha Clan, as far beyond the Sharingan as the Sharingan was beyond the eyesight of lesser mortals, surpassing even the lauded Byakugan.

The changes wrought by that rush of power were not purely physical either. Born in the pain of grief and bloodshed, the power seared through his mind and as it passed it twisted and warped and even erased the capacity for such emotions as love and compassion, leaving behind only anger, hatred, pain, grief and a desperate, burning need to use the power that resided within him.

All too soon and not soon enough the initial rush of power faded, the changes taking only a moment that was at the same time an eternity. But the power did not fade completely, instead settling into his bones, his blood until it was interwoven with the very fibre of Sasuke's being, demanding to be used and Sasuke was more than willing to oblige.

He stood, wrenching his hand free from Itachi's chest, ignoring the wet sucking sound and the stabbing pricks from the shattered stumps of broken rib bones. Surveying the battle field, he picked his targets out, a cold, cruel smile forming on his lips as he noted his team mates. Sakura was masterful, fighting three Akatsuki members at once, confusing them with such masterful genjutsu that they inflicted more damage on each other than she did. She would be dangerous, for her genjutsu were so cleverly constructed that they could fool even his Sharingan or an Inuzuka's sense of smell, fooling the brain into filling in the missing details.

Kakashi was also in the thick of things, engaging yet another Akatsuki member in one on one combat, unleashing rare and little known jutsus to confuse and hinder his opponent. It was proving to be a singularly effective technique, for Kakashi's transplanted Sharingan had allowed him to copy hundreds of jutsus in his time, some of them known only to a few people at most and the same applied to the defences against them. Sasuke regarded him cautiously, for Kakashi always kept an ace up his sleeve and it was almost certain that he knew techniques that Sasuke had not seen before, possibly even one that would grant him a decisive advantage. His Sharingan, though less powerful due to his lack of Uchiha blood would make him a hard target to hit as well.

And then there was Naruto. He was fighting the sole remaining Akatsuki member present and the outcome was a forgone conclusion. The fool fighting him was either new or had been paying attention for the last decade, for her battle with Naruto had quickly turned into a pure endurance match and absolutely _no one_ could outlast the loud mouthed blonde. Even before he tapped into Kyuubi's power he was possessed of awesome chakra capacity of his own. Kyuubi's presence also granted him preternatural healing abilities, allowing him to soak up truly phenomenal amounts of punishment and keep on fighting. The only way to defeat him was with a single strike, either a critical hit to a vital organ that would kill instantly or an overwhelming blow that would leave nothing left to heal.

Sasuke's upper lip curled into something that might have been called a grin if the observer were feeling particularly generous and he nodded to himself, his plan of action ready. His hands flashed as he performed a relatively short set of seals and then slammed one hand down into the ground. The ground surged once, and before the other Leaf-nin or the Akatsuki members could react five stone dragons shot up from the ground, smashing paving stones and sending dirt flying. They all emerged from beneath the Akatsuki members feet, their jaws gaping wide enough to swallow a man whole. In the blink of an eye the dragons' heads were over five meters into their and each of them had an Akatsuki member caught within their jaws. As one the dragons then slammed their jaws shut, reducing the five renegade shinobi to little more than a runny red paste.

They froze like that as Sasuke removed his hand from the ground, cutting of the chakra that animated the stone beasts. His fellow Leaf-nin were stunned into inaction for a fraction of a second, but that was fraction of second too long. It was Sakura who was the first to fall, making the fatal mistake of meeting Sasuke's transformed eyes. She barely had time to register the grin of Sasuke's face as he said, "Tsuki-yomi!" and then her world was nothing but pain.

It was all over in less than a second, at least from the outside point of view. From Sakura and Sasuke's shared point of view, it was three days and for Sakura at least, those three days might as well have been an eternity, filled with nothing but pain, torment and the horror that one of the people she had cared for most in the world had betrayed her in one of the most horrible ways imaginable. It was inevitable that she collapse when she was finally released, for no one's mind could take that sort of punishment without shutting down. There was in fact a very good chance that she was already dead, the psychological torment overloading her brain completely and even if it hadn't she would probably spend out the rest of her days as a vegetable. Just to be safe though, Sasuke reached out as he ran past her and in a single fluid motion snapped her neck, shattering both the atlas and axis, guarantying death.

It was all over before Kakashi or Naruto could react and Sasuke wasn't about to give them a chance. He turned to face his greatest rival even as his foot steps carried him closer to the man who had been his teacher and unleashed the second of the Mangekyou Sharingan's greatest weapons. "Amaterasu!" The words were almost lost in the roar of the black flames that erupted along the path of his gaze engulfing Naruto in their terrible embrace, cutting off his shrieks of pain. A tiny part of Sasuke was aware that he had just depleted most of his chakra reserves and would only have enough left to deal with Kakashi, but it was the only thing powerful enough to finish of Naruto that wouldn't give Kakashi a chance to prepare himself.

Now focused solely on his final target, Sasuke concentrated all his remaining chakra into his hand, ignoring the tiny electrical bolts that came of and the chirping sound that seemed to accompany them. He watched as if in slow motion as Kakashi's hand reached down to his leg, one finger snaring the ring of a kunai and pulling it out of its holster. The gleaming blade rose towards a ready position, but for all his training and experience, Kakashi had never expected one his former students to turn on him as Sasuke had done and the surprise cost him the ultimate price. When Kakashi had originally created his sole original move, he had called it Chidori for the sound it made when passed through the air, and for the longest time after learning it, Sasuke had called it that until he too duplicated the feat that caused Kakashi to change the name to Raikiri. A jutsu capable of cutting through a bolt of lightning was more than capable of parting a man's head from his shoulders.

Sasuke had not chance to stop though, for before Kakashi's head even hit the ground, from behind him came a roar of an ancient rage that presaged a harbinger of destruction. Acting on instinct Sasuke spun to face that direction and his eyes widened as a figure emerged from the blazing black fireball that had engulfed Naruto. There was still enough left to recognise the blonde shinobi in what emerged from what should have been assured destruction, wrapped in burning red aura of chakra, but it wasn't Naruto anymore, or at least it wasn't Naruto alone. The red-brown fur that now covered most of his body, the fingers and toes transmuted into claws, the partial muzzle filled with cruelly pointed teeth, the nine lashing tails emerging from the base of the spine and most importantly the absence of the seals on the stomach all said quite clearly that Kyuubi was free once again. Sasuke's eyes could also read in every line of his stance that Naruto and Kyuubi were united in a single purpose, his destruction.

Instinctively Sasuke reached out with both hands to ward off the attack, years of training having gone out the window, not noticing the blue glow that still surrounded one hand, fading fast but still present. Kyuubi/Naruto, overeager to get his hands on his victim didn't seem to notice either, for as his weight bore them both down Sasuke's hand passed through flesh and bone to pierce his heart. But it was too late for Sasuke as well, for even as his hand dealt the death blow to fusion of man and monster, that creature's teeth closed on his throat, closing with a savage force that severed both carotid arteries and crushed both the trachea and the spine. Death came a fraction of a second later, but it came all the same and Sasuke didn't even have the breath to scream as the darkness claimed him.

Sasuke surged upwards, screaming. His screams were short lived though, followed closely by nausea and he barely had a chance to get on his hands and knees before he was brining up the contents of his stomach. He continued to do so for several long minutes until nothing was left and even then he was wracked by dry heaves. Once the heaving stopped, he remained on his hands and knees, gasping for air and trying to rid himself of what he had just seen, praying that it was all some kind of horrible dream. It took quite some time before he was able to stand, but the instant he was able to, he was up, rounding on Mai. "What did you just do to me!" he yelled; advancing on her menacingly, anger hiding the tremble in his limbs.

"I showed you your future," Mai replied with aplomb, not batting an eyelid. "Or at least one of them. It's not my fault if you didn't like what you saw."

Sasuke wasn't about to be placated as easily as that. "Who are you?" he demanded.

"I'm an old woman whose doing you a favour, so you should show more manners than that boy."

"You call that a favour?" Sasuke asked, incredulous. "That was a nightmare!"

"Then you now know to avoid what may happen then," Mai snapped back and Sasuke was, reluctantly, forced to agree with her logic.

Mai nodded to herself when she saw him subsiding. "That's better," she said, still frowning at him. "But somehow I think you need a little more convincing."

She pointed her staff again and this time Sasuke surrendered after a token effort to resist the inexorable turning of his head to look at where it pointed. What he saw was another star that had separated itself from the pack and was racing towards him, though this one occasionally seemed to waver slightly off course, though never by more than a few degrees. It was more of an impression than something that the eyes could actually make out. Still, it did the same as the last one, catching Sasuke right between the eyes, this time seeming to infuse him with an odd feeling of warmth as his vision whited out and then faded to black.

Sasuke found himself lying face down in the dirt with absolutely no idea of how he got there.

He lay there for several moments trying to remember how he had come to be in that position, and drawing a blank. That was when he felt someone grab him by the elbows and lift him to his feet. Sasuke turned to look at his benefactors, blinking blearily as their forms swum into focus and he saw that it was Shino and Choji. Standing just past them were Naruto, Neji and Tenten, all three of them doubled over with laughter. Well Naruto and Neji were doubled up anyway and Tenten would have been if she hadn't been using Neji as a support to stay upright. That was when Sasuke remembered how he had wound up kissing dirt. He had tripped while trying to reach the high notes of some song that he had been singing. He wasn't sure what song it was or why exactly he had been singing, only that he had not been alone before tripping and it had seemed like a good idea.

An impartial observer would most likely have just shaken their head and sighed at what was going on in the streets of Konoha. No one was entirely sure what had started the now infamous tradition of Konoha's 'Boys Night Out' but everyone in the village was well and truly aware of its existence. It happened only irregularly, mostly because all the members involved were active ninja as well and one or more of them frequently were out of the village on assignment, but that only made things worse, not better for all the participants seemed to store up all their excess energy and blow it off in one big night, usually with the aid of a bit too much alcohol. The individuals involved were not only active ninja, but some of the most famous in and out of the village. The so called 'Konoha Boys' as they dubbed themselves, were Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke, Naara Shikamaru, Akichimi Choji, Aburame Shino, Inuzuka Kiba (accompanied by Akamaru as a matter of course), Hyuuga Neji and oddly enough Tenten. No one knew how the weapons specialist kunoichi had come to be a part of it. She had simple invited herself along one time and became a regular fixture. She certainly held her own in causing mayhem and was even the originator of the now infamous 'Operation: Give Hyuuga Hisashi a Heart Attack.'

Sasuke brushed himself with a dignity that can only be achieved whilst drunk and thanked Choji and Shino for aiding him to his feet. Choji, who was actually the closest to sober of any of them courtesy of body mass and his constant snacking, just grunted in acknowledgement and returned to helping Kiba support the utterly boneless Shikamaru while Shino replied with solemn dignity, "The liquid precipitation in the Country of Water is deposited primarily on the flat lowlands." Shino was a very odd drunk.

Sasuke scratched his head in thought as he tried to remember where he had been headed before he taken his brief detour to inspect the ground up close and personal. "We're… hic… headed for Kiba's… hic… 'stash,'" Shikamaru said, by now well accustomed to the vagaries of Sasuke's memory once alcohol became involved.

"Oh yeah," Sasuke replied in a bemused sort of fashion. "Um, where was it again?"

This just sent Neji, Naruto and Tenten off into more gales of laughter, even as Shino picked him up bodily and pointed him in the right direction.

So they continued, punctuated by several wrong turns, throughout the village, singing as they went, with mixed results. Shino made up both the words and tune as he went along, Kiba and Akamaru attempted to sing in harmony, with the key word being _attempted_, and the rest of them verbally staggered all over the place, totally unable to keep the beat. In fact Naruto was the only one who was any good, singing on time and in key with a melodious baritone, which was ironic as when sober he couldn't carry a tune in a bucket. So finally, accompanied by shouts, curses and threats to take a complaint to the Hokage, they left the village proper and arrived at one of the secluded training areas, not to far from the Forest of Death. In fact it was bisected by one of the streams that fed through the Forest of Death and it was over to this that Kiba meandered, reaching in and retrieving a wooden crate full of bottle of sake and other alcoholic beverages.

"Kiba, my man, you are a genius!" Naruto declared, reaching into the crate and retrieving an oversized bottle of sake, pulling the lid off with his teeth and knocking back a generous swing, after which everyone followed suit.

For the best part of an hour the booze flowed freely, putting a serious dent in Kiba's supply, and the mood gradually got mellower and mellower while the stories and jokes that were exchanged got bawdier and bawdier. Finally, as the moon was reaching its peak overhead, casting the clearing a pale silvery light Naruto staggered to his feet, holding a sake bottle in one hand, drained almost to the dregs. "Gentlemen and Tenten, who were not sure fits into the category of a lady any more," Neji cheered at that, "while the booze holds out, I would like to propose a toast!" He raised his sake bottle even higher. "To the Country of Fire, to the Hidden Village of the Leaf and to the best damn bunch of friends that anyone could ask for!"

This was met by cheers and an enthusiastic cry of, "Cry God for Harry, England and Saint George!" from Shino, followed by the sounds of several bottles of sake and cans of beer being emptied and at least one thud caused by a body hitting the ground.

"Very touching," a voice said as several figures emerged from the darkness.

"Neechan!" Kiba greeted the figure who had spoken cheerily.

Inuzuka Tsume just shook her head and walked over to pick up her younger by the back of his jacket. "All right runt," she said. "Fun time's over and we're heading home.

Kiba just laughed as he was propelled forward even as Tsume reached down and tucked Akamaru under one arm. As if that was some sort of cue, the other figures that had emerged from the darkness began coming forward to collect their wayward charged. Rock Lee sighed in long suffering tolerance as he hoisted the madly giggling Tenten and the now unconscious Neji (it had been him hitting the ground) over his shoulders to cart them back to their respective residences. As he passed Ino, who was picking up the completely immobile Shikamaru while chivvying on the still ambulatory Choji, Tenten paused in her giggling fit long enough to give Ino a laviscious wink and say, "What do you say you and I go somewhere and have some real fun tomorrow." Ino ignored her, which was probably the best idea. With Tenten's sense of humour it was impossible to tell whether or not she was joking when she made comments like that. She was the one who had suggested that Naruto use Sexy no Jutsu and kiss Hinata in public after all.

Kurenai Yuuhi was also there and Shino greeted her with a cheerful, "Auguries of destruction be a lullaby for rebirth." Kurenai just cocked an eyebrow at him and after a moment or two Shino climbed unsteadily to his feet and was promptly marched off with Kurenai's hands on his shoulders, partly to make sure he was aimed in the right direction and partly to keep him upright. This struck Naruto as enormously funny, but Naruto's sense of humour was questionable at the best of times and he didn't wind up laughing long anyway as Hinata appeared behind him.

"Yo, Hinata-chan!" he said with a drunken good cheer as he leaned back to look up at her.

"It's time to go home Naruto-kun," Hinata said softly but in a tone that brooked no argument. To back up her words one slender hand reached out and grabbed a hunk of blonde hair and simply dragged her wayward boyfriend off bodily. Too boozed up to feel any real pain, Naruto just stared at the sky in bemusement.

It was then Sasuke's turn to laugh, but he discovered that he who laughs last does not always laugh longest as a pair of long, well manicured fingers reached out from behind him and hauled him to his feet by one ear. "And just exactly what is so funny?" Sakura asked in a menacingly sweet tone of voice that spelled nothing but trouble for Sasuke.

Amusement instantly forgotten Sasuke swallowed nervously, but Sakura's question had obviously been rhetorical, for the pink haired kunoichi didn't wait for an answer but proceeded to walk away, still gripping Sasuke's ear, leaving him no choice but to follow or lose the appendage. Sasuke could think of very little more humiliating than being dragged through the streets of Konoha by one ear and he wasn't sure if the fact that only a few patrolling ANBU members saw him due to the lateness of the hour made it better or worse. Finally they reached Sasuke's house, but Sakura didn't relent, dragging him by his ear all the way to his bedroom.

"Bed, now!" she ordered, finally releasing Sasuke's much abused ear, only to point to his bed, unmade since the previous night.

Sasuke sighed, but knew better than to argue with Sakura when she was in a mood like that, so even as Sakura turned her back to give him some privacy he stripped off down to his boxers and climbed under the sheets and was almost asleep before his head hit the pillow. He stayed just conscious enough to be aware of Sakura turning around to look at him and mutter, "What am I going to do with you?"

By that point he couldn't be certain if it was real or if he was dreaming when a soft pair of lips brushed his forehead and Sakura's voice whispered, "Oyasumi nasai, Sasuke-chan."

Sasuke blinked as his awareness once again returned to the star studded void where Mai stood, looking over him. It took him several seconds to remember where he was, almost as if the alcohol induced absentmindedness from the vision still lingered. Still in a slightly befuddled state he said, "I am going to have such a hangover."

Mai cackled at that, bringing Sasuke more or less back to the present in a rush, for he had not meant to speak out loud. "That's the price of having too much to drink boy," Mai said, still cackling, though they tapered off as a thoughtful look passed over her wizened features. "Though come to think of it, you're probably the first I've had get drunk in their vision. Well, at least that I know of."

"You don't see the visions as well?" Sasuke asked, a little surprised. He had assumed that since she was the one inducing the visions that she was able to observe them as well.

"No," Mai said, shaking her head. "These are your futures, not mine and they're a private thing. Though sometimes I'll admit I can make pretty good guesses as to what some of my other guests have seen, at least in general. I may not be able to see the visions myself, but when you've been around as long as I have, you get to be a pretty good judge of human nature and how they react."

"Just how old are you?" Sasuke asked. He never saw the blow that followed the question coming, and the next thing he knew his head was hurting and Mai was lowering her staff back to the ground.

"You should no better than to ask a woman her age boy," she said testily. "What do they teach you children these days?" She shook her head and sighed. "What ever happened to good old fashioned respect for your elders I ask?" Mai sighed again, and then shook her head, as if clearing some mental cobwebs.

"Enough of regrets," she said, half to her herself and half to Sasuke. "The night's wearing on and I'm not getting any younger. So if you would just look this way…"

This time as she pointed her staff, Sasuke looked to where it was pointing before the inexorable compulsion took over. Though Mai's intentions seemed benign enough, he didn't like the feeling of his own body not being under his control, so he pre-empted it. He thought he might have seen the ghost of a smile on Mai's lips as he turned, but then all his attention was focused on the star that had separated itself from the pack and was making a beeline for him and this time Sasuke was ready for it. Prepared or not though, it was still a shock when it struck him between the eyes, whiting out his vision and then fading to black.

It was a cold, windy day as the caravan crossed over the border and while it wasn't raining, the clouds overhead and the thunder in the distance promised that it would be in the not too distant future. It really wasn't unexpected, for the Country of Lightning took its name from the titanic storms that battered the nation all year around and those who travelled there knew that weather was always a problem. Still the trade was lucrative, or at least it had been before what was already being called the Collapse, for the constant storm activity had washed away almost all the fertile topsoil centuries ago and the few crops that could grow in what was left were constantly battered by storms and harvests were meagre at best, meaning that there was always a demand for fresh foodstuffs. That at least hadn't changed during the Collapse, but now fewer merchants were willing to risk the journey through a countryside plagued by thieves, petty tyrants demanding tribute to pass through their territory and renegade shinobi who were just as prone to slaughter everyone they came across they were to rob them. Even the fact that at least part of the journey would be under the protection of the sole remaining member of the five great nations, guarded by the Cloud-nin who had proved to be the only ones capable of turning back the forces mustered by Akatsuki that had destroyed the Villages of Mist, Stone Leaf and Sand and killed the other four Great Feudal Lords, was enough to stir many merchants. A few, more foolhardy than most or motivated by greed were willing to make the trip but none of them were foolish enough to make the journey without some sort of protection.

The Cloud-nin guarding the border crossing scrutinised the guards accompanying the caravan carefully. In days gone by they might have been looking for known missing-nin from other villages, but now they were too shorthanded to do more than look after their own. With all the old treaties little more than a memory, they concentrated solely on looking for those who were wanted in the Country of Lightning alone. Their gazes lingered on one of the shinobi mixed in with the hired swordsman, studying him carefully, though they made no move to detain him. Sasuke ignored them as he ignored everything not pertinent to the task at hand. Once upon a time he may have felt annoyance or irritation and possibly even anger at attention the Cloud-nin were giving him, but now he felt nothing. He hadn't felt anything since the day that his brother had died by his own hand.

He remembered that fight and the grievous injuries he suffered and he remembered how the pain, grief and rage that he had carried with him since the day that Itachi had slaughtered all the other members of the Uchiha clan save him had come boiling to the surface and had driven him to fight on despite the wounds he had taken. He remembered the feel of the kunai as it had slid between Itachi's ribs until its point had found and pierced his heart and the look of disbelief that had crossed Itachi's face seconds before the explosion tag wrapped around the kunai's hilt had detonated. Everything after that was a blur, a handful of images standing but making no sense out of their context. When next Sasuke had become aware of his surroundings, he was waking up in an abandoned hut in the middle of a forest, his wounds cleaned and bandaged or stitched and most half healed or better. He had waited in the hut for three days, waiting in case anyone returned, but no one did. He left the hut on the fourth day and made his way to a town.

It was there that he had learnt that both the Country of Fire and the Country of Wind had fallen, their lords dead and the shinobi of their hidden villages either dead or scattered, no longer a force to be reckoned with. He had expected to feel something on hearing that news, but there was nothing in his soul but an empty void where his emotions had been. It was if the battle it Itachi and his long recuperation had burned the capacity for emotion out of him. He observed the fall of once great nations into hundred of squabbling domains with out even a tiny spark of feeling. He simply went about the business of hiring himself out as a guard, judging it to be the least troublesome form of employment for a former shinobi and many of his more principled former comrades had done the same. Those less burdened with scruples turned bandit and highwaymen. Sasuke had no particular objection to that profession and the only thing that stopped him from taking it up himself was that in the long run it would probably be less successful.

These musings continued until the caravan reached the first town across the border. Before the Collapse it had been a thriving trade town but since trade had decreased the town was distinctly less prosperous, though what little trade did come through was enough to keep it alive, which is more than a few places could have claimed. Once they had entered the town gates, the caravan master called all the guards together and doled out their pay before sending them on their way. It was expensive to pay the number of guardsmen necessary to properly guard the caravan and they weren't about to waste money by paying them to do guard duty in lands guarded by the Cloud-nin. The guard contingent took their pay with varying degrees of enthusiasm and went their individual ways, some to take advantage of the entertainments for off duty guardsmen that any trade town boasted, no matter how impoverished, others to seek employment with caravans heading back across the border. Sasuke chose the later option, as did most of those whom he had identified as former shinobi, whether they still wore their village's forehead protector or not, while most of the swordsman chose the former.

He had been to this town before, even if he had never bothered to learn its name, so Sasuke had no difficulty in finding his way through the streets to the staging area for the outbound caravans. He noticed one caravan master who was just setting up a hiring stall for guardsman and was about to head over there when he was stopped by a hand grabbing his elbow. Sasuke spun; sliding a kunai from the pouch he wore strapped to the inside of his forearm, but was stopped dead in his tracks halfway through his turn, unable to move. "Just relax would you," a familiar voice said. "You could poke someone's eye out with that thing."

"Naara Shikamaru," Sasuke said, identifying the speaker as he looked down as best he could in his immobilised state to see that his shadow was indeed touching the other man's. As he did so, the pressure holding him in place was released and as he watched Shikamaru's shadow twitched and resumed a more normal stated.

"Nice to see that you still remember me," the lanky shadow wielder replied as he let Sasuke's arm go. "It's been a while."

"It has," Sasuke agreed, offering no more.

Shikamaru just stared at him and then sighed, muttering under his breath. "What happened to you?" he asked. "We could have used you at Konoha."

"I fought Itachi and killed him. I don't remember much for the next few months and Konoha had already been destroyed by the time I came to my senses."

The slight frown that had creased Shikamaru's brow eased slightly. "Well, that explains that at least anyway. That's all in the past now anyway. We could really use your help now though."

"Why do you need my help?"

"We had regained enough strength since the invasion by the Sound and Sand that Akatsuki didn't dare face us take us on all at once. They lured about half the village away on fake missions before they attacked and even then the destruction wasn't as complete as they wanted. Tsunade-sama, Jiriya and Naruto led a rear guard action that allowed some of use to get the civilian population out more or less intact. We tried to get to those who got lured away on missions, but most of them were caught in ambushes. Still some were able to escape and we've been trying to round them up and get some sort of effective fighting force together."

"You want to try and resurrect Konoha," Sasuke said, and it was not a question.

Shikamaru snorted and shrugged. "Guess even a lazy bum like me has the will of fire that the Third was always talking about. Those of us who survived made a vow that one way or another Konoha will be reborn. No matter how hard the effort or how long it takes the Leaf will bloom again." A smile spread across Shikamaru's face at that, a rather crooked smile, but a smile none the less. "Having you with us will be a big help. The return of the last surviving Uchiha will be a big boost to our reputation if nothing else."

"I'm not coming with you," Sasuke said flatly.

It took a few seconds for Shikamaru to actually process that statement and when he did he stared as Sasuke. "What do you mean you're not coming," he said.

"Just that. I'm not coming. You're living for a dream that can not come true and I want no part of it." He turned to leave, slipping out of Shikamaru's attempt to grab him again and walking off.

"You were one of Konoha's greatest!" Shikamaru called after him. "Are you just going to live out your life like this? A faceless caravan guard who's either going to wind up dead with a bandit's knife stuck in him or buried in a shallow grave with nothing to show for his life when age eventually catches up with him."

"I don't care," Sasuke said. "We must all die some time and how it happens and what happens after doesn't matter."

Shikamaru was not finished though. "Are you willing to let your _clan_ die?"

That actually caused Sasuke to stop dead in his tracks, but it was still not enough for even the tiniest flicker of emotion to warm his heart. "My clan died years ago," he replied. "I'm just taking longer about it than everyone else."

Shikamaru continued to call after him, but he ignored the cries as no longer relevant. Others might have their dreams, but not him, not anymore. He had no wants, no desires and what the work he did was enough to fulfil his basic needs. It was enough and it always would be.

When Sasuke awoke from the vision he awoke shivering. The sheer emptiness that he had just experienced chilled him to the very core. He wrapped his arms around himself, though he knew it would do no good for the cold he experienced came from within, not from without and even the blazing heat of the desert could not effect it.

"Just remember that it's only a possibility," Mai said, coming over to him and laying one bony on his shoulder. "You are the one who ultimately decides if what you see this night comes to pass."

Mai's words and the simple feel of human contact was enough to banish the worst the lingering sense of emptiness that plagued Sasuke and he drew a shuddering breath and pulled himself up to his full height once again. "I'll be all right," he said Mai and she smiled at him and gave his shoulder one final pat before withdrawing her hand.

"That's the spirit boy," she said. "Now, how about one more and then we'll call it a night then."

Sasuke nodded and looked once again as Mai pointed yet another star. Once again the star she pointed to seemed to detach itself from the general background and seemed to race towards him. Sasuke had just enough time to wonder what caused the sense of movement despite the fact the star remained a pinpoint of light whose brightness did not change, no matter how close it got and then he was once again struck between the eyes and was overwhelmed by light that faded to black nothingness.

Sasuke sighed and rubbed his eyes as placed yet another piece of paperwork in his out tray and retrieved the next item needing his attention from his inbox. No matter how diligently he worked and how many hours a day he put in that damned pile never seemed to get any smaller. In fact it was all he could do to stop the pile from getting so high that his entire desk would be buried in paperwork. It had seemed like a good idea when he had first started out, but if had had even the slightest inkling of how much paperwork it would require rebuilding Konoha's police force would have remained a dream.

It had seemed like a good idea initially, at least to Sasuke. The Uchiha had formed the back bone of Konoha's police force, even to the point where the stylised fan of the Uchiha Clan had been incorporated into their insignia and when Itachi had massacred every other member of the clan save Sasuke, the police force had simply collapsed, their numbers too few to remain effective. Instead the survivors had been transferred over to ANBU, along with the duties of their former position. When he had finally made jounin and ANBU one of Sasuke's first duties had been the routine security patrols that had formerly been the responsibility of the police force and that was what had given him the idea of resurrecting it as part of his eventual, long term goal of restoring the Uchiha Clan to something approaching its former state.

Tsunade had obviously agreed with him for when he had approached her with the idea, she had released him from his regular duties to pursue the idea with barely even a token argument. That had been the last thing that Sasuke had got with any degree of ease though. The properties used by the police force had mostly belonged to the Uchiha Clan and were on permanent lone to the village and in the intervening years had been assigned to other duties and rather than just order them freed up for his use, Tsunade had forced Sasuke to try and convince the current occupants to allow him to reclaim the facilities for their original use. For the most part it hadn't been _too_ painful, at least until Sasuke tried to reclaim the main holding cells, which had been appropriated by ANBU for their own use. That had been the first argument the fledgling police force had with ANBU, but it was by no means the last. The bitterest disagreement and the one that didn't look like it was going to end any time soon was the one over personnel. Sasuke had persuaded a few of the old police force members out of retirement and filled out the ranks by shamelessly plundering the new jounins and the more promising chunins, but ANBU still commanded the pick of the jounin candidates, including the ones best suited the roles that Sasuke needed to fill.

The ability to multi-task was almost essential for any ninja, though a few rare exceptions like Lee and Naruto seemed to be able to get by without it, so Sasuke was able to mentally grumble and prepare himself for the next, inevitable confrontation with his former colleagues in ANBU while the rest of his attention was on the paperwork he had to sign. It was only when his hand was beginning to cramp that he stopped and actually looked up from what he was doing and noted the time. He sighed when he saw that it was well into the evening, wondering where exactly the day had gone. About that time he was interrupted by his stomach, reminding him that it had been a long time since the rather scanty lunch he had wolfed down between requisition forms some time around noon, and by one of his subordinates. Sasuke was sure that given enough time he could have remembered the young man's name but he could work up the energy right then. "What is it?" he snapped, perhaps harsher than he should have been.

The other shinobi didn't some much as even flinch. Everyone in the office knew how long Sasuke worked and how cranky he got when he was tired, not that anyone would dare say such a thing to his face of course. "We thought you should know we've just picked up Konohamaru again. What do you want us to with him?"

Sasuke sighed and was suddenly overcome with the urge to take off his forehead protector and start hitting his head against the wall. Konohamaru, heir to the title of Konoha's resident prankster which he had inherited from Naruto was the other big thorn in Sasuke's side after the ongoing personnel dispute with ANBU. There was a very fine line between public nuisance and public menace and Konohamaru was very aware of where that line and always made sure to stay of the safe side of it, so Sasuke couldn't do what he really wanted to do, which was to wring his scrawny little neck, but it was starting to grate on his nerves. It didn't help matters any that Naruto, who was Tsunade's second in command in all but name, cheered him on every step of the way.

"I don't want to deal with it right now," Sasuke said. "Just throw him in a holding cell overnight and let him stew in his own juices for a while. I'll deal with him in the morning."

The other ninja grinned briefly before schooling his face into a properly serious mask that did nothing to hide exactly how good he thought Sasuke's idea was. "Yes sir!" he replied, all but coming to attention and saluting.

"Oh, and before you go, tell everyone else that I'm calling it a night. If you need me, you know where to find me."

"Yes sir. Good night."

"You too," Sasuke said, waving the other man away as he stood up and worked out the kinks in his spine.

Once he was confident of being able to move freely, he left the office, saying his farewells to the office staff as he passed through the main area and taking a deep breath of fresh evening air as he stepped outside. He walked casually along Konoha's streets, occasionally responding to called out greetings. To an observer he could have been any one of Konoha's ninja out for an evening stroll, at least until he stepped into the shadows between a pair of streetlights and didn't come out again.

Under the cover of darkness he ducked into a small alley and from there into a hidden passageway concealed beneath the street. Few who had not served in ANBU knew of the existence of the place he had just entered and no one who had not been a part of ANBU knew of its location. It was the most secure facility in Konoha and reserved exclusively for Class S criminals. The two ANBU guards who were inside, anonymous under their robes and masks didn't react to Sasuke's presence. For all the professional antagonism between their two organisations they bore no personal animosity for Sasuke himself and they politely looked the other way for Sasuke's occasional visits to the holding facility.

Most of the cells that Sasuke passed were empty, but in good condition just in case they were needed. They were all sturdily constructed, proof against anything nature or their possible occupants might throw against them and Sasuke knew from his own time in ANBU that they were inspected regularly. They were the closest thing to escape proof that anyone had been able to come up with, though it was conceded by some at least that there was a good chance that either Naruto or Gaara with their demon born power and endurance might be able escape from them if they wanted to.

There were quite a few cells though no one truly believed that they would ever need to use all of them, so it took Sasuke a bit to reach the one that was his goal, the only occupied cell in the entire facility, at least at the moment. The cell's occupant was a pale, waxy figure from being kept below ground for so long, though it was ensured that he got enough Vitamin D from other sources in his diet to keep him healthy. He was also wasted and almost painfully thin, not from lack of nutrition but from sitting in one position for so long, utterly motionless that his muscles had atrophied from lack of use. He was utterly bald and permanently so. Sasuke didn't know the details but someone in the medical branch had accidentally stumbled across the formula for a depilatory that killed off hair follicles after only a few treatments and it was now routine for ANBU to use it on all their long term prisoners lest they find a way to conceal something in their hair.

Sasuke spent a long time studying his features, noting the numerous scars that covered his body, but his gaze was always drawn back to the scars over his eyes. Sasuke had been responsible for the one over his left eye. It was Naruto who was responsible for the malformed shape of the right eye socket and the rather pronounced bend in the bridge of the nose, but it was ANBU surgeons who were responsible for the scar over the eye socket itself. Either way he was forever more denied the power that was his and Sasuke's shared birthright.

"I know you're there little brother," Itachi said without moving, his deep voice no longer dark and resonant but hoarse and scratchy from disuse. "I can hear you breathing."

"I never tried to hide my presence," Sasuke replied, looking at the human wreck that had once been his brother.

"Have you come to kill me?" Itachi always asked the same question and Sasuke always answered the same way.

"No. I don't need to kill you." This time around Sasuke felt compelled to add a little something more, though he could not say why. "I proved that when I beat you and dragged you back here."

"You proved nothing," Itachi spat, pulling himself into a sitting position and making the manacles around his wrists jangle. The manacles weren't there to restrain him. They were there to drain his chakra and sap his physical strength as an added measure of security. "You need the help of that Kyuubi brat and the woman to do it. You're weak."

"And you're wrong," Sasuke said. "Having friends and something that you want to protect is true strength. Naruto and Sakura know it. I knew it, even if I let Orochimaru's curse seal fool me into thinking otherwise. _Gaara_ knows it. Gods help us even Kabuto and Kimimaro knew it. It's that strength that was your downfall."

"You're a fool little brother. You let your _friends_ drag you down. Unless you're willing to sacrifice them you'll never know exactly what you're capable of."

"There are some sacrifices that are not worth making. Goodbye Itachi."

With that Sasuke spun one heel and walked back the way he had come, leaving Itachi alone once again. As he walked, Sasuke allowed the ghost of a smile to flit across his face. His true vengeance against Itachi was knowing that there was another way to awaken the Mangekyou Sharingan and it would awaken stronger and more powerful than the twisted, crippled version born in blood that Itachi had once possessed. One day, when the time was right, he would tell Itachi that and then his vengeance would be complete, but until then he left Itachi to the tender care of the ANBU interrogators. The interrogators were patient people and willing to spend months waiting for a subject to break enough to get the information they wanted and Sasuke was willing to let them do their jobs before he took his final vengeance.

He smiled for truth as he stepped back out onto the street like he had never left. His visits with Itachi always reminded him that for all he had lost by his brother's hands, he had gained just as much and maybe even more by his own and that he had much to be thankful for. As he walked he pondered exactly where to go to dinner, even contemplating dropping by Ichiruka Ramen to let Naruto know where Konohamaru was spending the night and maybe even rubbing his nose in it a little. Then he decided on a spur of the moment to stop by and see if Sakura was free to go and see a movie. He felt like treating himself. Plans made he walked on, all the while smiling and whistling a jaunty little tune to himself.

Sasuke blinked a little muzzily as he came around from his final vision and saw Mai looking at him. "Any comments?" she asked.

Sasuke just looked down at his hands, frowning in confusion as he replayed what he had learnt from that last vision. He had given over half his life to avenging the deaths of his family and clan and he had thought that the only way to do that would be to kill Itachi with his own hands. To know that there was another path was… disconcerting. He didn't truly know how to feel about it. "I don't know," he said softly, but Mai heard him anyway.

"That happens," she said philosophically. "But you're the only one who can truly decide if what you saw is what you wanted or not. That being said, there are some things I must tell you before you once again seek your bed. The first is that unless we meet again, all memory of this night will be blocked from your conscious mind. I would not do it that way if I had a choice, but I am constrained by certain rules that I cannot break."

"If I can't remember why show me in the first place?" Sasuke asked, most of his attention still focused on what he had learnt in the last vision.

"You won't remember it in your mind, but the heart can remember where the head forgets. Though you may not know it, you will carry with you what you have seen this night, so listen to your heart. Secondly it may come to pass that our paths will cross again. Should that happen, remember that what I showed you tonight is but a small fraction of the endless possibilities and you may end up walking a different path all together. What happens once you leave here is depends on you, not me, so just keep that in mind if you ever want to ask why what came to pass was nothing like what I showed you."

Sasuke nodded absent-mindedly and Mai sighed softly. He was not the first that she had seen who had been too distracted by what they saw to pay much attention to what she told them. "All right then, that's it. I Now I think it's about time that you were going back to bed, so shoo!"

Sasuke's attention was brought firmly back to the present when Mai's staff began banging against his shins. Retreating before he suffered too serious a bruising, he looked up and saw that the door through which he had entered was suspended in the void before him. Taking Mai's hint he opened it and walked through and found himself back in the main room of Mai's little cottage. He went to look behind him, but found that he had closed the door without even realising it. Shrugging, and deciding that it wasn't worth bothering about; he padded back to the empty futon and slipped back under the sheets. He lay staring at the ceiling for several long minutes before sleep finally returned to claim him and carry him off to the land of dreams where he dreamt of new possibilites.

Author's Notes:

First and foremost I must give many thanks to the people of the IJC St Lucia Chapter for acting as sounding boards and throwing out ideas to act as the seeds for some of the above visions. Without their help this chapter would have been _much_ longer in coming, so once again thank you.

As for the little challenge I set up for the end of the first chapter, we have had two winners, both of whom have declined to make any suggestions, but thank you anyway. For those of you who couldn't figure out the references they are as follows.

Kaleidoscope: The Mangekyou Sharingan (Mangekyou = Kaleidoscope)

Lightning: Raikiri/Chidori (And why oh why did Kishimoto-sensei have to change the name? Raikiri/Lightning Edge sounds so much cooler in _both_ languages)

Vengance: Sasuke's basic character motivation, which play a part in three out of the four visions one way or another

Next time is Naruto!!!

Chapter 03: The Vortex of Destiny


	4. Chapter 03: The Vortex of Destiny

Naruto

Future Paths

Chapter 03: The Vortex of Destiny

Disclaimer: If you haven't figured out by now that Naruto isn't mine I'd start worrying.

Spoilers Warning: Probably a slightly higher probability of spoilers than previous chapters

Non-yaoi Warning: If you've been holding for yaoi, you're going to be sadly disappointed.

Naruto came awake with a start. It took him several seconds to figure out exactly where he was, but the memories of the afternoon and evening came back fairly quickly. Nodding to himself he rose from the borrowed futon and took a moment or two to get his bearings and then head for the door that led to the outhouse. It was almost inevitable when he was raining. It was almost as if the sound of falling water sent a message from his subconscious to his kidneys to increase their output. Still, it wasn't that big a difficulty so Naruto padded down the covered walkway to take care of the problem.

Nature's call answered, he walked back to the cottage proper, but paused when he saw that the door had slid shut and he could have sworn that he had left it open. After a moment's thought he shrugged and decided that he must have closed it behind him automatically, not noticing since he was still half asleep. He also felt an odd prickling sensation on that back of his neck but put it down to the after effects of all the lightning from earlier in the night.

Sliding the door open and stepping through it he realised that he might have made a mistake. He had never told anyone, not even Iruka-sensei, but the darkness had never bothered him. He could see perfectly well in conditions that would have left most others all but blind. On a clear night he could even read by starlight if he had to, though that took an effort. So it came as something of a surprise when he was confronted with utter darkness as he stepped through the door that not even his eyes could penetrate. He looked around in confusion, instinctively feeling for one of the walls to try and get his bearing, but his hands encountered nothing.

That was when he sensed it. He couldn't put a name to it, at least not initially but the sense of its presence was inescapable. The rage and urge to destroy came of whatever it was in waves that were almost physical and the more Naruto focused on what was behind them, the clear his sense of it became. He could even hear a low growl and the sounds of a massive bulk shifting. There even seemed to be the sound of multiple tails swishing through the air and that was when Naruto realised that what he was sensing was none other the Kyuubi. He spun to face the beast, but encountered nothing and the sense of Kyuubi's presence still came from behind him. He spun again, even as a tiny part of his brain asked the rest exactly what it thought it was going to do against the creature that had ravaged the village and required the Fourth Hokage to sacrifice his life to stop.

"Stop spinning about you young scamp! You're making me dizzy!" a disembodied voice came from out of the darkness.

It took Naruto a few seconds to place the voice as Mai's and even as he made the connection he saw the old woman in the light of a single, brightly glowing golden star. That star was soon joined by another, and a third, then three more and still more until it they lit the entire void. Though he had no way of knowing it, fewer stars appeared in the void for Naruto than for either Sakura or Sasuke yet all together they gave off more light for they glowed so much brighter. Mai stood in the middle of it all, her robes faintly golden by the light of the stars.

"Are you quite finished?" she asked when she saw that she had Naruto's attention. "Or are you going see how long you can keep spinning?"

"But…" Naruto started, but Mai held up one hand, cutting him off.

"The nature of this place means that that fox you carry around with you isn't as tightly bound as he is normally, but he can't hurt a hair on your head."

"Are you so sure about that old woman?" a deep, gravely voice, potent with menace and long denied rage growled from somewhere above and behind Naruto.

"Try me fox and you will get more than you bargained for, I promise you that much."

"Somehow I doubt that mortal."

That was all the warning that Naruto had before he was overwhelmed by an immense surge of power, unlike anything he had ever felt before, even when fighting Haku. For all that immensity though he knew that what he was feeling was but a fraction of what Kyuubi was unleashing. Mai seemed unfazed though. She merely drew herself upright with a slow dignity and glared at a point somewhere just above Naruto's head. For the tiniest instant Naruto would have sworn that figure standing in front of him was not an old woman but a tall, elegant woman possessed of an unearthly beauty and wrapped in an ethereal light. The vision appeared and vanished so fast though that it could have been nothing more than a trick of the eye.

Whatever happened though, the effect could not be disputed. Naruto felt a sensation of great heat on his stomach, centred over his navel. It wasn't painful, though it should have been, but Kyuubi flinched back, growling in pain and frustration and Mai, who once again appeared to be an old woman, grinned as the sensation of heat passed. "Now are you going to behave yourself or do I have to call the ones who sealed you to deal with you?"

If he hadn't known better Naruto would have sword that Kyuubi felt a brief flicker of fear at that suggestion, though he himself only had the faintest idea of what Mai was talking about. The only answer of out Kyuubi was a growl of frustration, but Mai seemed to be satisfied with that and turned her attention back to Naruto.

"Now where were we before we were so rudely interrupted?" The question was apparently rhetorical, as she continued on without giving Naruto a chance to reply. "Ah, yes. I was about to explain. Now by now I'm sure you're wondering what in the world is going on here."

Naruto nodded mutely.

"Well the answer is quite simple. I'm here to show you your future. Or at least several possible futures. I probably shouldn't be telling you this, but you're the one this entire night has been about. The fact that your two friends are being trained by that rascal, Kakashi, means that earned the visions that they saw tonight, but no matter how your life turned out you would have been receiving a visit from me sooner or later. Part of it is because of your 'friend,'" Kyuubi growled at that, "but a lot of it is because of who you are." She smiled slightly, though it wasn't what one would call a kind smile. "For better or worse your actions will help to shape history and it might help you to see what may lie ahead. So look now and see what could one day be."

She pointed with her staff to one of the distant stars and Naruto found himself looking at where the staff pointed before any one of the dozen half formed questions churning in his mind could spring to his lips. As his team mates before him had, he puzzled at the way the star seemed to be moving towards him without growing brighter or grow larger or do anything to indicate that it was getting closer. This kept his mind occupied right up to the point that the golden point of light smacked him right between the eyebrows causing the world to white out for a heartbeat before everything faded to black.

It was early spring and the breeze that blew was still chill with the last touches of winter, despite the intensely blue sky overhead, utterly devoid of cloud, and the light of the noonday sun. It was quiet in the glade that held Konoha's memorial for those who had fallen in battle. That was generally the case as none who knew the true significance of the stone marker was willing to break the tranquillity of that place. That day however at least part of the quiet came from the fact that there was only one person there. Naruto knelt before the memorial, his fingers lightly tracing the names inscribed on it, some that he recognised and some that he didn't. He idly noted that three family names, Hyuuga, Uchiha and Inuzuka, were repeated quite frequently, but that was no real surprise as those three clans had been amongst the most numerous in the entire village and two of them could still lay claim to that eminence. Others Naruto recognised as relatives or close friends of people he still knew. He found Iruka-sensei's parents, Kakashi's old team mates Rin and Obito and still others.

His fingers lingered over one of the most recently carved names and once again he felt the tears threaten to spill from his eyes. "Dammit Sasuke, why'd you have to go and die?" he whispered to the empty air.

Unbidden his mind flashed back to that day in the Nation of Sound when the best Konoha had to offer went to stop Orochimaru once and for all. It had been a close fought battle and the outcome had always been in doubt. Kakashi and Kabuto had faced off in a battle of epic proportions, yet even that had been lost in the chaos in confusion as Orochimaru spent the lives of his men in an attempt to buy enough time to complete his ultimate technique. He might have too if a spearhead of Leaf-nin, lead by Naruto and Sasuke hadn't broken through to confront him and even then it had been a close thing. There had been only one way to absolutely ensure that Orochimaru was dead and didn't jump to another body, a technique that would have been declared forbidden if it weren't for the fact that it required so much chakra that it was impossible to perform. Impossible for anyone but Naruto that was, and even then it had taken everything that he and Kyuubi both had to complete it.

The greatest weakness in the Leaf-nin's plan was that for one brief moment Naruto would be dangerously exposed and helpless to stop any attack and he wouldn't have enough chakra for a second attempt. It had been a gamble and it had looked to fail when Orochimaru had had gone for him right at the critical moment, but Sasuke had been there and taken the blow and allowed Naruto to finish off the damn snake once and for all.

"I did it because it had to be done," said a voice, sounding as if it was coming from a great distance.

Naruto rose and spun; his long flame trimmed white duster spinning with the movement. The bright sunlight was gone and the glade that housed the monument was bathed in an otherworldly twilight, still and silent, empty save for Naruto and the wavering, spectral form of Sasuke.

"It's a risk we all took when we put on this," the shade said, flicking his forehead protector.

Naruto blinked in confusion, wondering if he was dreaming. "How?" he asked, groping for the right words and failing.

Sasuke smiled, not the usual arrogant smirk that he had worn in life, but a smile of genuine amusement. "Your thoughts called me," he said. "But I'm not the one who's supposed to be visiting you. The others are being gracious, but they can only wait for so long so I'll keep this short. I regret a lot of what happened when I was alive, but not that. Never that. I knew what I was doing and I knew what would happen, so don't you go regretting something that I don't. You've got responsibilities now; gods help us, so get on with your life. The heavens only know how you're going to manage without any additional burdens you place on yourself."

Naruto shook his head and grinned. Even from beyond the grave Sasuke had to taunt him, even if they were friendly barbs. So he responded in appropriate fashion. He pulled down the lower lid on one eye and stuck his tongue out.

Sasuke laughed at that. "Gods I've missed that," he said. "I've got to go now, so take of yourself and remember that we will meet again, one way or another and I promise that next time, I'll be the one kicking your ass."

"In your dreams Sasuke!" Naruto said as the spectre before him faded and he was rewarded with a grin before Sasuke disappeared from sight entirely.

He was not left alone though, for even as Sasuke disappeared he was replaced by five more figures who faded into existence before him, though one was fainter and less distinct than the others. Naruto recognised all the individuals before him, though three he had seen only in pictures for they had died before he was born, or as he was being born in one case. He bowed respectfully before them even as he voiced their identities. "Hokage-tachi-sama."

"Rise Uzumaki Naruto," the First said, a faint smile on his spectral lips. "It is unseemly for the Hokage to bow before any man or woman, be they living or dead."

"Not quite Hokage yet Shodaime-sama," Naruto corrected, rising, but keeping his eyes downcast.

"Maybe not as far as everyone else is concerned," the Third said. "But that ceremony is simply for show. This is the one that matters."

Then Tsunade stepped forward, her appearance less distinct than the other four for she was projecting her spirit from somewhere near the main arena rather than visiting from beyond the grave. "Uzumaki Naruto," she said formally. "By my authority as the Fifth Hokage, I have chosen you as my successor. Do you accept?"

"I do," Naruto said.

Then Tsunade stepped back and she was replaced by a figure with a shock of blonde hair much like Naruto's own and eyes the same shade of blue. Naruto swallowed nervously and had to fight back tears as he recognised the Fourth Hokage, the man who was responsible for sealing Kyuubi inside him and the man who had been revealed to be Naruto's father on his eighteenth birthday.

"Do you promise to nurture and protect the village of Konoha, guiding and aiding its growth for as long as you are able?"

"I do, Yondaime-otousama."

The Fourth smiled and it was easy to read the pride he felt in it, as well as the bittersweet regret at never truly being able to know his son. "Then go with my blessing my son." He stepped back and the Third stepped forward, the pride in his gaze just as evident as it had been in the Fourth's.

"Do you promise to guide and protect those that dwell within Konoha, showing fairness and impartiality in judging what is right and wrong?"

"I do Sandaime-jisan." Naruto couldn't help himself when he said that and was relieved when he saw a grin on the Third's face to match his own."

"Then go with my blessing Uzumaki Naruto, and may you never lose your sense of humour."

He stepped back and was replaced by the Second. "Do you promise to stand against all those who would harm Konoha, both from within and without, even if doing so may cost you your own life?"

Naruto stood up a little straighter, one hand unconsciously going to his stomach where the seals that contained Kyuubi sat. "I carry a living reminder of the cost that sometimes must be payed and I can do no less than those who came before me. I promise that so long as I draw breath I will guard Konoha with everything that I am."

"Then I too grant you my blessing Uzumaki Naruto."

He stepped back and glanced at his elder brother, who nodded. The First nodded solemnly and stepped forward, placing spectral hands on Naruto's shoulders. "Uzumaki Naruto, when I was a young man the world was a dangerous place where those who could not protect themselves were crushed beneath the iron heels of tyrants who flaunted their power by fighting against each other, destroying still more innocent lives in the process. But deep within my heart I knew that it did not have to be so. With that in mind I gathered others around me who felt the same way I did and together we carved out a place where people could live out their lives in relative peace and from their we sought to spread that peace to as much of the world as we could reach. That mission has consumed several lifetimes and is still not complete for as you know from experience there are still those who seek to plunge the world into war. I would be honoured if on behalf of myself and on behalf of those who have come after me if you would take up the mantle of Hokage and to take yet another step in making that dream a reality."

"It is I who would be honoured to carry on your dream Shodaime-sama," Naruto replied, his voice as solemn as the First's had been even as a tiny part of his mind gave thanks for actually having read some of those trashy period romance novels that Sakura, Hinata and Ino seemed addicted to and kept leaving around the place. Great works of literature they were not but they were useful picking up a few flowery phrases that could be used in situations like this.

The First continued, apparently to the slightly irreverent voice nattering away in the back of Naruto's mind. "Then I think we need look no further for the sixth of our number. Welcome to a very exclusive group Uzumaki Naruto, or perhaps I should say Rokudaime Hokage. Would that we could stay longer, but we cannot, but know that you go with our blessings and good wishes." With that he began to waver and fade, even as he stepped back, and in a few short seconds all but Tsunade had faded until they were little more than faint blurs in the air.

"Now get your ass over to the stadium," she growled at Naruto, even though she was smiling. "It's time to let the rest of the village know about the bad news."

"Ah, you just want to make sure we finish before its time for your afternoon nap," Naruto shot back. "Though I can understand why. An old bad like you needs all the beauty sleep she can get, for what little good it does."

Tsunade just shook her fist at him as the twilight background faded and to his dying day Naruto would swear that is it disappeared he could hear the faint, ghostly voice of the First crying out "Revenge is sweet!" while the Fourth muttered, "Is it too late to disown him?" all accompanied by laughter from the Second and Third.

When the twilight background faded to darkness Naruto blinked and was surprised to find that he was still kneeling before the memorial stone.

"Well that bodes well for the future," a voice from behind him muttered. "The future Hokage already asleep on the job."

"Very funny Sakura-chan," Naruto said, standing up and turning around to face his former team mate, who stood with her feet planted apart and her hands on her hips glaring at Naruto in an amused sort of way. The effect was ruined somewhat by the tiny pink haired bundle that was curled up in her carrier that was strapped to Sakura's chest, Uchiha Ayame, the last of the Uchiha clan, but not by much.

Also with Sakura was Hyuuga Hinata the woman who Naruto hoped would be his fiancée in just a few short hours. He would have proposed sooner but the Hyuuga clan were sticklers for formalities and there was no way that Hyuuga Hiashi would have given his permission to the union. Hinata still could have said yes of course, but that would have caused her family to disown her and Naruto wasn't about to put her under that sort of pressure. Of course no matter how much he wanted to refuse Uzumaki Naruto his daughter's hand in marriage there was no way he was going to be able to refuse the newly elevated Sixth Hokage. Naruto was already wondering what colours his face was going to turn when the announcement was made. "The elders sent us to get you," Hinata explained. "They say there all ready to start and they are just waiting for you and Tsunade-sama."

"Lets go then," Naruto said, standing up and swinging one arm around Hinata's shoulders, causing her to blush, and the other around Sakura's, being careful not to disturb the sleeping Ayame which meant he only got a look of resigned amusement rather than the glare that only the mother of a newly awakened infant can give.

So it was with a grin on his face and in the company of two of the most important people in his life that Uzumaki Naruto went to greet his future.

Naruto blinked and shook his head as he came out of the vision with a goofy grin on his face. All that he had learned from the vision was a jumbled mess in his mind, but one thing stood out clearly and vibrantly. "Yatta!!!" he cried out triumphantly. "I'm going to be Hokage! I'm going to be Hokage!" He began doing an impromptu victory dance in a small circle to accompany his litany of victory.

Mai allowed that to go on for several minutes but since it showed no sign of abating after that she stopped him dead in his tracks with one well placed blow to the head from her staff. Naruto never saw it coming, but not even he was so hard headed that he didn't feel it. "What did you do that for!" he demanded, rubbing the tender spot where wood had connected with cranium.

"We don't have all night you know. And remember I what you see are only possible futures. That might happen, but that might not."

"And I for one certainly hope that it doesn't," Kyuubi added. "That was so saccharine that if I still had teeth they'd be falling out of my mouth."

Mai glanced up sharply to the point from where Kyuubi's presence seemed to emanate and glared.

"So I'm not allowed to comment either?" Kyuubi protested.

Mai just grunted and turned her attention back to Naruto. "Now are you ready to see another one?"

Naruto nodded eagerly. Subconsciously part of him probably realised that just because the first vision had been good didn't mean that the next vision was going to be as good, but elation firmly quashed that very quiet voice of reason.

"Then observe," Mai said, pointing her staff at another gold tinged star.

This time Naruto calmly disregarded the way that the star seemed to approach without moving, simply chalking it to one more strange thing in Mai's place that was not a place. Instead he speculated on what future this star might show him, right up until the moment it smacked him right between the eyebrows and he whited out again before the world faded to black once more.

It was a pleasant day in the Country of the Wind, or at least in one small out of the way village. It was the middle of winter so the temperature wasn't too high, at least for somewhere on the edge of a desert, and it was only mid-morning and the ground hadn't yet had a chance to soak up too much heat. The children of the village were taking advantage of the weather to play outside and have some fun before the full heat of the day made it too hot. While the younger children made their own entertainment the older children had scrounged up a battered leather ball and had fallen into an impromptu soccer game, though the sides were rather… fluid for lack of a better term and there were so many tackles, body charges and other infringements that an official referee would have been handing out red cards like a clown at a children's birthday party. There was no official referee though, just a young man with red hair and green eyes dressed in drab brown colours splitting his attention between the soccer game and the younger children to make sure that no one got too badly hurt.

He grinned as several of the younger children who were just chasing each other around circled around him, one little girl in particular trying to use his legs as a shield against her friends. He stood stock still until they moved on and then turned his attention back to the soccer game. It was at just the right moment too for right then a stray shot aimed at one of the goals came flying at him. He didn't even bat an eyelid as one hand shot up in front of his face and plucked the ball out of mid-air, the motion accompanied by a swirl of loose sand, though there was no wind to kick it up.

He handed the ball to one of the players who came over to collect, who responded with, "Thank you Gaara-san," but his attention was elsewhere. He could sense something nearby, something powerful and malevolent, something that caused the darkness within him to stir in response and whatever it was, it was coming closer.

"Everyone, get out here!" he barked in a tone that brooked no argument. "Tell everyone to get to the shelters now!"

"Is it a sandstorm Gaara-san?" one of the older children asked.

"No. It's something far worse. Now GO!"

No one was going to argue with that tone of voice, so Gaara didn't even bother to look back as he raced to meet the approaching threat as far out from the village as possible. There was something disturbingly familiar about the power he sensed, but whatever it was, it was powerful enough that even if he could defeat it, it would result in massive amounts of destruction and it was the further that happened away from the village the happier Gaara would be. Part of his was also willing to admit that he didn't want the villagers whom he had come to like and even respect to see just what he was capable of.

He slowed down as he reached the source of the danger and his brow furrowed in confusion when he saw who that the source appeared to be a human being. Humans just didn't posses the sort of power he could sense, especially not strong enough that he could feel Shukaku's mind stirring within his own. As the figure drew closer he could make out the red-patterned robes of Akatsuki and his lip rose in a snarl. He had met more than his share of those treacherous scum and if they wanted to try and interfere in his life once again he was going to send a very pointed message to them.

That was when the figure came close enough that he could make out his features through the heat haze and his sneer faltered. They hadn't seen each other in years, but that wild shock of blonde hair over blue eyes and framed by whisker like marks were permanently engraved on Gaara's memory, for not only did they belong to the person who had handed him his first ever defeat, they belonged to the one who had finally broken him of his homicidal madness and set his feet on the path that he walked to this day. But the blue eyes that had once sparkled with mischief when pulling a prank and gleamed with determination when facing an opponent were now dead and lifeless and Gaara feared for the worst when he saw the deep line scored into Naruto's forehead protector, right through the spiralling leaf of Konoha.

"Halt!" he roared as Naruto drew nearer. "Any who intend harm to this village must first go through me."

Naruto stopped and looked at him with cold dead eyes. "I have no business with the village," he intoned in a flat monotone. "My masters desire your death Gaara of the Desert and it is my duty to fulfil their wishes."

That was all the warning that Gaara got, but it was more than he needed. The entire area surrounding the village was made up of sand dunes and sand was his to command. One hand thrust forward even and Naruto charged fingers half clenched. "Sabaku Kyuu!" he commanded and the sand's responded, engulfing Naruto, but not before he launched several kunai, which impacted harmlessly against the Shield of Sand. Gaara paused a moment to whisper, "Forgive me," before clenching his fist with a cry of "Sabaku Sousou!"

Part of Gaara knew that it wouldn't be that simple to defeat Naruto, so he was relatively unsurprised by the enormous burst of chakra that blasted him clear from the crushing embrace of the Desert Funeral. Though it had been years since he had ceased to be a shinobi, all his old skills remained with him and he tracked Naruto's movements and then launched a swarm of Sand Shuriken at the place where he judged the blonde shinobi would land. He had judged right, but they were absorbed by a swarm of Shadow Clones before they could injure the real Naruto.

Naruto grunted in pain as a pillar of sand blasted through the cloud of smoke and slammed into him. The weeks and months of conditioning at the hands of Akatuski's torturers, including Itachi with the power of his Mangekyou Sharingan, had stripped away all emotion, leaving him clear to analyse the situation dispassionately and he knew that the battle would be difficult. Gaara's ability to create and manipulate sand meant that it was very hard to engage him at any distance and memories from before his 'rebirth' as Akatsuki's ultimate killing machine reminded him that for all his slight build Gaara still had demon born strength and was formidable at close ranges, even without using his sand. Still, it was the course that offered the greatest possibility of success.

With a Naruto formed a spinning blue ball of chakra in each hand and silently charged forward. Another pillar of sand was launched at him but this one was intercepted with the Rasengan in his right hand. Ploughing through the sand slowed him fractionally, but not much and by the time the first Rasengan expended itself he was within striking range of Gaara. It would have been a clean kill there and then for the Rasengan punched through the Shield of Sand and like it wasn't even there and the hastily erected Armour of Sand was almost equally ineffective, but Naruto's left hand was his off hand and his aim was not as perfect as it could have been. This meant that when the sand about his feet suddenly tightened, pulling him temporarily off balance Gaara was able to move far enough out of the way that all he got was a shallow strike across his chest. Shallow or not it was still deep enough to _hurt_ and Gaara was almost hypersensitive to pain since he barely ever felt it.

Howling he stumbled back, throwing one hand up and Naruto was lifted into the air by a tendril of sand that was wrapped around each limb. The pain that Gaara felt was also enough that Shukaku, already roused by Kyuubi's presence, even leashed to aid Naruto in battle, woke fully from his years long slumber and for one moment it was he that was in control and not Gaara. Each of the tendrils of sand that were wrapped around Naruto's limbs tightened with the hideous crunching sound of bone not merely being broken but _shattering_ and then the shards being ground together. The conditioning that he undergone at the hands of Akatsuki allowed Naruto to ignore any pain inflicted upon him during his missions but like Gaara it had been a long time since he had sustained injuries anything like what had just happened to him and a primal scream of pain ripped from his throat. That pain also shot straight past the parts of the brain responsible for higher thought and tapped into something more primitive, more instinctual and that part of the brain instinctively summoned the one thing that it knew could protect it.

Even as Gaara regained control over his sand from Shukaku and withdrew it he noticed the sudden blazing surge of red chakra that poured forth from Naruto, straightening and bonding bone shards, but that wasn't the important part. What Gaara saw was that while his limbs were repaired for just a moment Naruto's eyes seemed to flicker from blue to red and the whisker marks on his cheeks seemed to become wider and darker. On anyone else it could have been passed off as an optical illusion, but not for Naruto and Gaara nodded. "So that's the way it has to be then," he muttered.

Even as Naruto hit the ground, the aura of red chakra dissipating and his eyes returning to their normal blue, Gaara's assault started again, but it was different this time. This time around he wasn't trying to actually injure Naruto, just to hurt him. It was a variant on the technique of a thousand cuts which still remained one of the most agonising methods of execution devised by humankind. Individually the damage inflicted by each wound was negligible, though the shallow grazing cuts hurt all out of proportion to their severity, and enough of them could kill. Gaara planned to stop short of that point, assuming he could even reach it with Naruto's regenerative capabilities, but the important part was the pain. For just a second enough pain had overridden Akatsuki's brainwashing, unleashing Kyuubi. If what he intended worked the fox would emerge so strongly that the shock would break Akatsuki's control permanently. If it didn't work of course he would have a very angry Kyuubi to deal with, but it was a gamble that Gaara felt was the risk.

Back-pedalling to gain some room Gaara reached out and lifted the top layer of sand for several metres all around him, but rather than clumping it together to form an effectively solid mass as he did for most attack, he left it loose and started it spinning with Naruto at the centre of the vortex. At first it was only an inconvenience to the blond shinobi, but it rapidly grew worse as the sand spun faster and faster while still more was added to the mix until in a short space of time he was standing in the middle of ferocious, if very localised sandstorm. His heavy robe provided some limited protection while it lasted, but once it was reduced to shreds the flimsy shirt and canvas trousers he wore underneath were all that stood between his bare skin and the stinging sand. The shirt lasted even less time than the robe, leaving Naruto naked from the waist up while each sand grain opened a long thin gash on the bare skin. They sealed up almost as soon as they were opened, but they still hurt and to make matters worse in several places a few sand grains that drove in deeper were actually sealed in as the wound closed, adding a further irritant.

Half blinded by the stinging sand and unable to lower his arms from across his face to get a better look lest the more sensitive flesh there be torn to shreds, even temporarily Naruto had no choice to stand stock still and wait for Gaara's sandstorm to subside, playing right into his opponents hand for with every stinging lash the closer Kyuubi came to emerging. The final straw came when the sand dune that he was standing on slipped, causing Naruto to lose his balance. It was only for a fraction of a second, but it was long enough to change his stance, taking the protection, minimal as it might have been, of his arms away from his face for a fraction of a second. That fraction of a second was all that it took for his face to be reduced to bloody shreds and the sudden visceral spike of pain on top of the mounting torment from sandstorm was all it took.

Red chakra blasted from every pore in Naruto's body with enough force to completely dispel the sandstorm and a basso roar was ripped from the blonde shinobi's throat as the chakra wrapped around his body, glowing so brightly that even in the bright sun that it almost obscured the figure within. At first the chakra was only an amorphous blob with Naruto at the centre but almost faster than the eye could follow it condensed and shifted until it took on a distinctly fox-like cast, complete with nine chakra-forged tails fanning out behind it. The figure paused for a moment before its head shifted and Naruto's eyes, barely visible through the red glow laid eyes on Gaara and then he charged with a roar that was bereft of anything human within it. The aura around the head parted into two jaws that looked ready to bite Gaara in half, but all they closed on was a mouthful of sand as Gaara frantically swapped places with a sand clone.

That proved to be his own undoing for whipping up the sandstorm had roused Shukaku as well and the seals that kept him bound were weaker than those that bound Kyuubi at the best of times. Having to dodge Kyuubi's assault drew Gaara's attention from keeping Shukaku under control at a critical moment. The sand spirit, enraged at his enforced dormancy, overwhelmed his host's mental defences and while not capable of taking control, at least while Gaara was still conscious, he was more than capable of driving his host back into the old killing rage. Kyuubi's next assault was met with a solid wall of sand and when it dropped the creature facing the demon fox/human hybrid was equally inhuman as Gaara's second form was revealed.

The battle that followed was one of pure elemental ferocity, though fortunately for the inhabitants of the nearby village, it steadily drew away from their home, else they would have been destroyed by the power unleashed. At first glance the battle appeared to be weighted in Shukaku/Gaara's favour, thanks to their almost symbiotic relationship with the desert that formed their battle ground but Kyuubi/Naruto neutralised their advantages through sheer, raw power. Their was one advantage that the fox could not counter though, for anything that might have been left of Naruto's consciousness was lost in the swirling maelstrom of the beast's rage while Shukaku had been human once and Gaara's mind was still working, even if it was swamped by the urge to kill, still capable of thinking on something beyond a purely instinctive level.

A memory flickered through Gaara's mind, of a better time when he and Naruto had been discussing the demon's bound within them. Naruto had confided then that his body was actually one of Kyuubi's weak points, so tightly they were bound. No matter how hard the fox might try, there were some things about Naruto he could not change about his prison, including its need to eat, sleep, drink… and breathe. It would take longer to blink than it took Shukaku/Gaara to formulate a plan and act on it once that memory surfaced.

With the speed of thought Kyuubi/Naruto was completely engulfed in a sphere of sand, compressed to a density greater than anything that Gaara had ever attempted before. Compacted so tightly in fact that not even oxygen molecules should be able to slip through in anything less than geological time spans. Kyuubi wasn't about to let that happen without a fight of course and constantly assailed the barrier, but it reformed even faster than it could be worn away. It was a grim battle of pure endurance, a race to see whether Shukaku/Gaara would run out of chakra before Kyuubi/Naruto succumbed to oxygen deprivation.

Hours passed and the sun was almost touching the western horizon before Gaara realised that all struggle from within the sphere had ceased hours ago. Not only that, but he had expended so much chakra that he had reverted to his purely human form some time back and Shukaku had once again been driven into a dormant state. In fact he was completely drained and the instant his focus wavered the sphere collapsed in slithering rush. Most of Naruto was obscured by the falling sand but his face managed to remain clear and Gaara could only stare in disbelief as blue lips moved and a faint tinge of colour crept into pale skin, though very, very slowly.

"End it," those pale lips croaked out. "End it now."

Gaara could only assume that Naruto thought that either Kyuubi would emerge once he recovered enough, or that Akatsuki's conditioning would assert itself. But he was spent himself and anything more would kill him as well, but considering either of the threats that could be unleashed on the world again, Gaara would consider his own life a small price to pay. There was even a certain grim satisfaction at the though of dragging Shukaku down into hell with him. His only regret was that the villages who had sheltered him after he left the Village of Sand would never know what became of him. Still, he had to do what he had to. Collapsing down next to Naruto, he thrust one fist up to the first stars of the night and with a cry and a final burst of chakra roared out, "_SABAKU TAISOU!!!_"

The final fate of Uzumaki Naruto and Gaara of the Desert would become a mystery that was never to be solved.

Naruto didn't get a chance to say anything as he snapped out of the vision because Kyuubi spoke first, though roared was probably a more accurate verb.

"I WOULD _NEVER_ LOSE TO THAT PITIFUL, COWARDLY, INSANE EXCUSE FOR A TANUKI!!!" The awesome voice vibrated in Naruto's bones and seemed to shake the odd not a space that they occupied to its foundations, but Mai seemed unmoved. Kyuubi wasn't finished though. "YOU LIE OLD WOMAN AND YOU WILL PAY THE PRICE FOR INSULTING ME!!!"

Kyuubi's roar drowned out conscious thought but it died out halfway through, drowned by an enormous flash of light that blinded Naruto and caused Kyuubi to go from roaring to emitting a strangled shriek. At the same time the skin on Naruto's stomach went completely numb, at least until the light passed.

When the light faded Naruto heard Mai hiss in whisper that was as cold as space and impossibly seemed to shake the not a place even more than Kyuubi's yelling, "Last warning fox. Be silent or die!" and once more Naruto was struck by the sense of something otherworldly about the old woman in front of him. He had absolutely no idea what she was exactly but she definitely wasn't the plain old woman that she pretended to be.

Then her attention returned to Naruto and the sense of the otherworldly faded. "Now where were we?" she asked.

"Trying to get the ringing out of our ears," Naruto asked facetiously, thumping one side of his head with the heel of his palm, only half in jest for his ears were indeed ringing, even if it was fading rapidly.

Mai laughed at that and shook her head. "Well I can certainly understand how one could think that damn fox's yelling could be considered a little loud," she conceded. "And you're standing closer to him than I am to boot. But we mustn't let these little things distract us from the task at hand after all. Are you ready to go on?"

Naruto felt a nervous flutter in his stomach but nodded anyway. There was no way a he was going to show any sort of trepidation in front of Mai, especially not after what she did to Kyuubi.

"Then look and learn," Mai said, pointing her staff.

Naruto's gaze was drawn to a third star hanging into the void and as it came closer a tiny part of Naruto's mind tried to figure out how it was possible for the stars to move without seeming to move at all the way they did. That lasted up until he was struck between the eyes once again, without success, and then the all consuming whiteness blanked out all thought before fading yet again to black.

The gaunt figure sat at in the dusty street, a begging bowl in front of him and his eyes staring blankly at a point just in front of it. He seemed oblivious to all around him, the ebb and flow of pedestrians that clogged the street, other beggars like himself who also tried to glean enough to eat from the passers-by, universally with more success and even the flies that hung heavy in the air. Apart from the slight rise and fall of his chest, mostly hidden by the fall of the rags that served him in place of clothing and the slight, involuntary twitching of the eyes he could have been dead.

He was viewed with an odd mixture of fear, awe and pity by the beggars and shopkeepers in the area. None of them had ever seen him eat or drink, not that there was ever enough money in his bowl to buy all but the most meagre of meals. In fact the bowl had been a gift from one of the local shopkeepers. When he had first arrived in the street he simply sat down and never moved. A few people threw coins in the dust at his feet, but he made no move to pick them up and they had been quickly been appropriated by others on the look out for a little money. After a week one of the shopkeepers had put the bowl down in front of him in the hope that it might rouse him a little to look after himself.

It hadn't worked and urchins and pickpockets constantly raided the bowls meagre contents and still the man made no move to protect it. In fact he never seemed to move at all, though every beggar and shopkeeper in the street knew that he could move well enough should the need arose. Though he allowed himself to be robbed of everything but his rags and his bowl (which no one had ever bothered to take, even if it was a little better than the average beggar's bowl) when physically threatened he could move faster than anyone would believe if they didn't see it with their own eyes. Twice within the first month of taking up residence in the street he had been attacked. Twice his attackers had fled with crippling injuries in the space of less than a minute. There had never been a third, but those who had witnessed it remembered and treated the still figure with great caution.

That was how Uzumaki Naruto spent his days and nights. Motionless save for his breathing in the dusty street of a poor city so far from the place that he had called home that no one had ever heard of the Fire Country or the Hidden Village of the Leaf. He did not how long he had sat there for days and nights had long since ceased to have any meaning and things like weeks, months and years were nothing more than abstract concepts from another lifetime that had no more meant no more to him now than colours meant to a blind man.

Only one day stood out in his memory and it was the one day in his entire life that he wished to forget more than any other. He had known that Konoha would never know peace so long as the Akatsuki sought the power of the demon bound within him so he had hatched a plan. A reckless, foolhardy plan that was more than a little insane, but a plan all the same. He had snuck out of the village one night, completely alone and allowed himself to be captured. He knew that Akatsuki had no real interest in him, only in Kyuubi and that one of the first things they would do would to be try and extract the fox from his body. Trusting in the Fourth's handiwork, Naruto had planned to use that opportunity to catch them off guard and if not eliminate them completely at least neutralise them as a threat.

It was at that stage of the plan that everything went wahoonie shaped. In retrospect it had probably been a serious mistake not to tell anyone what he was doing, especially as the rescue mission turned up at the worst possible moment. Naruto wasn't sure what happened next and was glad for that small favour at least. The next thing he was aware of was running away from a massive crater in a blind panic. He didn't know how long he ran for, days certainly, possibly even weeks, but he kept going until he collapsed. Every time he thought about stopping he was gripped by the certainty that not only had he wiped Akatsuki, but the rescue party sent to save him as well, including some of his closest friends and that other Leaf-nin were now hunting him down.

He kept going until he was far enough away from not only Konoha, but the ninja countries that any pursuit was a near impossibility and once that happened, the blind panic faded to be replaced by a crushing depression. A tiny, rational part of his mind insisted that since he could not remember what happened there was no way he could know if the rescue party had died or not, let alone if by his hand, but it was smothered under the black cloud of Naruto's depression. He had tried to kill himself on several occasions but the regenerative powers that had made him so formidable a ninja now became a curse instead of a blessing. Even a kunai piercing his heart hadn't been able to do more than incapacitate him for a few days and every poison he had tried had made him violently ill for but none had successfully carried him off, even when taken in combination. He had even tried to drown himself, but the ropes he had used to secure the rocks had snapped every time and he floated back to the surface. Even heavy gauge chain had slipped loose.

After every attempt to kill himself quickly failed Naruto embarked on a slower method and tried to starve himself as he wandered, but even that didn't work. He grew thinner and thinner and soon it was simple matter t count not only his ribs but practically every bone in his body yet still he lived, long after a normal person would have died. The same force that healed his wounds almost instantly kept his body going past the point where it should have shut down, cursing him to a continued existence. Finally he had sat down in the spot he now occupied and waited for the time when not even Kyuubi's immense power could sustain him any longer and he could finally achieve the end that he so greatly desired.

Days grew into weeks, weeks grew into months, months turned into years and years slowly grew into decades and centuries. The motionless man eventually grew into a part of the street which he occupied and many forgot he was human and not just a cunningly wrought statue. Seasons turned and stories travelled and from the routes the stories travelled people came to see the strange sight. Yet through this all Uzumaki did not move, constantly waiting for the day when the curse of his immortality would be lifted, a day that might never come.

Naruto shivered as the vision let go of him, and when he became aware of his body again he realised that he had wrapped his arms around himself in a vain effort to ward off a chill that came entirely from within. "No way," he muttered. "There's no way I'd ever do something like that." It was purely an attempt to shake to free himself from the lingering grip of that depression rather than denying the truth of what he saw, but it didn't seem to help.

Mai seemed unaware of this when she said, "Oh yes there is. Everything I show you here is possible, though that can change. New choices open up for us just as often as old ones are closed off. However while everything is _possible_ I make no claims as to whatever you see being _probable_. Of course I don't expect a foolish young scamp like you to be able to make the distinction."

That did it.

"I do to know the difference!" Naruto retorted hotly. "Probable means it can happen and possible means how likely it is to happen. Or was that the other way 'round?" he added as the spurt of anger faded to be replaced by confusion."

"It's the other way around," Mai said, shaking her head with an amused smile on her face. "But that's beside the point. Feeling better aren't you." It was a statement, not a question.

Naruto's eye widened. "Yeah," he said in surprise.

"It happens sometimes," Mai said with a shrug. "Emotions can sometimes linger after a vision has run its course and the best way to be rid of the ones you don't want is to rouse another emotion to take its place. Now we'd best be moving along. This night won't last forever, even here and time grows short. Ready for the last one?"

"Ready," Naruto said with a nod. He figured he was due something a little more pleasant to make up for the second and third vision and watched calmly as his gaze was directed towards a fourth star. Like the other three it detached itself from the background and came towards him without seeming to move. For the last time that night his vision whited out and then everything faded to black.

Naruto leaned back on the too comfortable to be real divan and wondered how much longer the council was going to be. To be more specific he was wondering if there would be enough time to catch a little sleep before they called for him. The last few months had been exhausting, both physically and mentally and all Naruto wanted to do was sleep for several weeks, or even months if he could get away with it. The sheer comfort factor he was sitting on wasn't helping matters any, as befitted what looked to be part of the quarters of the late Lord of Fire Country, deep at the heart of the main palace in Fire Capital.

His thoughts began to wander as he contemplated the long path that had brought him to this room. It had all started five years previously when the Countries of Wind and Earth had been struck without warning from an enemy to the west. They had struck so fast and so viciously that the two nations would have been overwhelmed had their terrain been a little more conducive to moving large numbers of people. As it was only a few strategically placed avalanches in the mountains of Earth Country and several conjured sandstorms in the trackless desert that made up so much of Wind Country prevented them from being overrun in a matter of weeks and most of the shinobi who volunteered for those missions never returned.

It did buy enough time for them to get enough information to relay to the other ninja villages and the news was grim. If one gathered every single ninja from every hidden village, for the largest like Konoha to the smallest like the Waterfall and then added every mercenary swordsman they would still be outnumbered by at least fifty to one, though a hundred to one would probably be closer odds, and though one on one every shinobi was worth dozens of them they a highly trained, highly disciplined fighting unit compared to the highly individualistic and often eccentric shinobi. And that didn't even count the _things_ that accompanied them. The general consensus was that they were something akin to the spirit beasts with whom shinobi contracted, such as Naruto's own Toad Clan, but none of those consulted recognised the creatures who fought at their opponent's side. Fortunately they had been few in number, but they made up for that in effectiveness and dozens of shinobi must had died at their hand… assuming that was what those appendages were under the form shrouding mist that clung to them.

They soon consolidated their positions in Wind and Earth and moved onto the other great nations, rolling over the smaller ones that littered their borders like they weren't even their. The other nations had warning though and while they weren't able to stop the invaders, despite their best efforts; they had been able to slow them down. It was at this stage that it became quite apparent that there was no for the hidden villages, the primary military forces for their respective countries, would be able to win on their own. That was when Naruto found himself dragooned into helping unite the forces from the hidden villages, or the remnants there of as well as more conventional military forces that were hastily being assembled to bolster the desperately outnumbered ninjas. Somehow, though some fluke of personal charisma, Naruto had risen to the top of their makeshift command structure and found himself in charge. Shikamaru, who had proven himself a genius at strategy as well as tactics, did most of the planning, but it was Naruto who was truly in charge, if only for the fact that it was impossible for the disparate and sometimes hostile elements making up their army to even come close to agreeing on another leader.

So they had fought and eventually they one, but at terrible cost. Even when things had drawn to a near stalemate the invaders had begun resorting to scorched earth tactics and terrible blitzkrieg attacks, somehow getting massive numbers of troops behind their lines to wreak terrible damage before they were intercepted and almost always wiped out. As they were slowly driven back their scorched earth campaign stepped up and their deep raids became more frequent, though thankfully they seemed to lack the resources to conduct them too often, even at their most frequent rate. Yet all that didn't even began to compare to the cost in lives. The Lords of Wind and Fire were dead with no living heirs, the new Lord of Earth was barely ten years old and while the Lord of Lightning was in his late-twenties, a few years older than Naruto's own twenty-five, he had been far down the line of succession and had never been trained to rule. Amongst the shinobi it was worse still.

Temari, still grieving the loss of both her younger brothers had become Kazekage in all but name, lacking only confirmation from sufficient village elders, a near impossibility given how badly the Sand had suffered. The 'Beautiful Blue Beast of the Leaf,' Rock Lee had given his life defending the a medical camp, showing the true power of the Renge as he opened all eight gates in a display that earned him a place in the history books. That same day also carved the name of Haruno Sakura into history as well, for when Lee fell she took up Tsunami, the greatest of the Hidden Mist's Seven Swords, which had been gifted to Lee by the Mizukage in a show of solidarity and used it to finish the job he started and refused to let it go since. Even now slumbering only a few metres from Naruto, having given in to the comfort of the divans she cradled the hilt. Closer to Naruto's heart the Konoha's Hyuuga clan had been decimated and the distinctions between the Head Clan and the Branch Clan abolished simply because there weren't enough of them left having born the brunt of so much of the fighting. The few surviving Sound-nin who had come out of hiding after Orochimaru's defeat had died to the last man in a desperate defence of Water Capital in an effort to prove their loyalty to the alliance. Mitarashi Anko had proven exactly why Orochimaru had once chosen her as an apprentice when she single handedly annihilated a battalion sized deep raiding unit, at the cost of her own life. And so the list went on and on, too many for any one person to remember no matter how hard they tried but in the end, victory had been theirs.

The final push, though rout might have been a better description, had been a few short weeks ago, driving the invaders back into the trackless deserts in the western half of the Wind Country where they had disappeared and when it had ended Naruto and the rest of his inner circle had received orders to return to Fire Capital where a conference had been held to decide the fate of the ravaged nations. He had detailed several scouts to track the survivors to ensure that they didn't have any surprises still waiting in store and turned around to Fire Country, leaving Shikamaru in temporary command. He had arrived in Fire Capital only a few hours earlier, accompanied by Sasuke, whose loyalty to Konoha had been proven beyond anyone's desire to question by his actions during the war and who was now curled up and snoring on another divan, while the troops that had accompanied them waited in the city. Sakura had met them at the palace gates and led them to the room where they now waited, having just arrived in the city herself.

The next thing Naruto knew a hand was shaking his shoulder and morning light was streaming in the eastern facing windows. Surprised he had fallen asleep without even realising it he came up with a start, forcing Sakura, who had been the one shaking his shoulder to jump back lest their heads collide. "What is it?" Naruto asked, heart racing and wondering what had gone wrong, instincts from too many nights punctuated by surprise attacks operating at full.

"Relax," Sakura said. "Nothing's wrong. The council is ready to meet us now."

"They are?" Naruto asked while his brain tried to process the information while coming down off a sudden adrenaline spike. "Oh. That's good. Took them long enough." He looked over at Sasuke who was still curled up asleep and snoring. "Think we should wake him?"

"Probably," Sakura said. "They said it was important, but not urgent."

With a groan Naruto sat up fully and then levered himself upwards, muscles protesting that they could use several more hours, or even days of rest.

Between the two of them Naruto and Sakura managed to bring Sasuke around to some semblance of consciousness though exactly how much he was aware of was anyone's guess. Still it was enough for him to walk with them, following a page to the chamber where the council was meeting. The council was technically formed of representatives from every country and hidden village but their number was much smaller than it should have been for some of the smaller countries had no one left to represent them and there was the glaring absence of a representative from the Tsuchikage courtesy of the decimation of Hidden Rock's forces.

The council, such as it was, rose as one when the trio entered and Tsunade, her face showing the toll the stress of the war and the loss of Tsunade had taken on her despite her ability to disguise her appearance, stepped forward and then dropped to one knee.

Naruto looked at her in dumb shock, wondering just what the hell she was doing, as she began to speak. "Uzumaki Naruto," she said formally. "You have led our nations in a war likes of which none has ever seen before. For this we give you thanks. Yet the cost of this war has been great and many of those who should have led us in peace have fallen. Thus on behalf of this council I have the great honour to ask you, who have proven your worth as a leader, to take their place and unite all our nations as our emperor. Will you do us the honour of accepting?"

If he thought he had been speechless before, that was noting to the state that gripped Naruto once Tsunade had finished speaking. He looked up at the council, certain that the look on their faces would prove that this was some kind of twisted joke, but their faces were as deadly serious as Tsunade's. Slowly each of them sank down into a low bow, including the ancient and wizened Lord of Water though it did take him a little longer to get down than some of the more able bodied members of the council. Even Temari who Naruto would have sworn would never bow to anyone in her life.

"Will you accept?" Tsunade asked again, calmly and patiently.

Naruto turned frantically to look at Sakura and Sasuke in turn, but found no help their. They were as stunned and confused as he was.

"Will you accept?" Tsunade asked again. Then she added in a whisper that carried no further than the trio in front of her. "Accept. We are too weak right now, too worn out, to be able to stand alone. We need to stand united and you are the only one who can do it. This is the only chance we have to end the wars that plagued our nations since before my grandfather's time and if we lose it now we will for back into the old pattern of fighting at a time we can least afford it."

Tsunade's arguments were convincing, or at least convincing to get him to accept for the time being. If he had to Naruto always figured that he could wiggle out of it sometime later on. "I… I accept," he said and the tension in the room suddenly vanished as the normally dignified councillors cheered.

Under the cheers Naruto Tsunade whisper, "Oh, and don't think you're going to be able to wiggle out of this one. And I suggest you change into something more suitable to wear. Once it gets settled down here, we're going to have to make the proclamation to your subjects, Your Imperial Majesty."

It was all too much. Exhaustion and surprised ganged up with the dawning immensity of what he had just agreed to do and Naruto did the only sensible thing he could think of. He fainted…

And woke up back in the star studded void with Mai leaning over him.

"Wow," he said. Since it seemed appropriate he repeated it. "Wow. That was just… wow!"

"I get the picture," Mai said. "Now get up. There are some things I need to explain before you leave here.

"Like what?" Naruto asked, rolling to his feet.

"Well firstly when you wake up in the morning, you're not going to consciously remember this."

"Why not?" Naruto asked, clearly miffed at having to go through all the visions if he wasn't going to remember them, which seemed like a wasted effort on everyone's part to him.

"I said consciously," Mai said. "The heart can remember what the head does not. And just take my word on this it generally works out better this way. I've been doing this for a long time now and I do actually know what I'm doing."

Naruto looked dissatisfied with that explanation but didn't challenge it. "What else?"

"Secondly if by some chance we meet again try and remember what I'm showing you are possibilities. They might happen, they might not and I have no say in how likely any given vision is likely to happen, so don't blame me if your life takes a path you didn't see here. Not get going you young scamp. My old bones tire easily and arguing with your fox friend hasn't help matters any."

"How am I supposed to… Never mind." Naruto had been turning as he spoke and saw the door halfway through his sentence. He didn't know how it got there since it hadn't been a few moments ago, but he wasn't going to ask. He simply used it and found himself back in the main room of Mai's hut, Sasuke and Kakashi snoring away on their futons. Naruto took to his own futon and tried to get back to sleep. It turned out to be surprisingly easy and within a few minutes he was snoring away back in the three part harmony that Sakura had noted earlier that night.

Author's notes:

First of let me apologise for the Discworld reference. I couldn't resist.

And let me also say, having completed the main part of the story that these visions turned out much longer than I expected them to be and in some cases a lot harder to come up with than I anticipated. Then again maybe that's because I had Sakura's all in mind when I wrote them while Sasuke's and Naruto's were made up on the fly. Ah well, such is life, especially when your living with a muse like mine.

Tranlation Notes:

Sabaku Kyuu: Desert Coffin

Sabaku Sousou: Desert Funeral

Sabaku Taisou: Imperial Desert Funeral

Not long to go now. Just the epilogue and that will probably be uber-short.


	5. Epilogue

Naruto

Future Paths

Epilogue

Disclaimer: Naruto and co ain't mine though if Kishimoto-sensei doesn't get his finger out I might be tempted to steal a few select ones, especially those he seems to have been neglecting recently. looks sideways at Hinata and Tenten 

'You're still waiting for yaoi?' Warning: If you really still are I admire your optimism, but c'mon people!

Full series author's notes to follow.

Haruno Sakura rose with the sun, which was really not her preferred time of day to get up but when one was camping out in the open there generally wasn't much choice in the matter. Sakura had yet to meet the person who could truly sleep through the sun shining on their face for any length of time, especially unfiltered by windows, curtains or even any shade from the trees overhead. "Whose bright idea was it to bypass Maki town and keep going until we found somewhere to camp for the night?" she asked irritably as she noted her team-mates rising from their sleeping bags.

"Kakashi-sensei's" Naruto managed to get out from around a mighty yawn as he rubbed his eyes.

Sakura glared at the silver-haired jounin who still slumbered on, his right eye covered by his forehead protector as well as his left, turning it into an impromptu eyeshade. She contemplated pouring water down his sleeping bag as revenge for making them sleep out but decided against it. He'd probably only manage to turn the prank against her and she wasn't about to give him that sort of opportunity. It was then she noticed Sasuke, who was the only one of the three gennin actually up and out of his sleeping bag was moving a bit awkwardly.

"Sasuke-kun is there something wrong?" she asked, letting a trace of concern into her voice.

"It's nothing," he said gruffly. "I just slept awkwardly. I think there may have been a rock or something under my sleeping bag. All I need to do it walk it out for a bit."

"I slept like a log," Naruto taunted cheerfully, earning an annoyed glance from Sakura. "Though I did have this odd dream." He frowned in concentration. "I can't really remember it, but it seemed important at the time. There was something about stars I think." He paused for a moment or two, obviously thinking. "Nope. It's gone."

The annoyance disappeared from Sakura's face to be replaced by confusion. "I had a dream like that too I think," she said, cocking her head to one side as she frowned in thought. "But I can't remember anything about it. I probably would have forgotten completely if you hadn't mentioned it Naruto." Which was odd, because as a general rule Sakura remembered most of her dreams, generally if not in the details. "What about you Sasuke-kun?" she asked, more to change the topic a little than out of any real curiosity.

All that came from Sasuke was a grunt in the general affirmative, though he looked puzzled as well.

"Now, now, it's probably just a coincidence," Kakashi said, coming up on them silently while adjusting his forehead protector, startling all the gennin.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura exclaimed in surprise.

"That's right," Kakashi replied in his infuriatingly calm tone of voice. "Now I think we'd better get moving. There should be a small town not too far down the main road and we can stop there for breakfast, but only if we hurry."

That was enough for Naruto to spring into action, though he did earn a tongue lashing from Sakura when he asked if they could have ramen for breakfast. In very short order they were ready to head out on the road once more. They kept the pace slow for a few minutes for Sasuke to work out the kinks in his back, despite Naruto's complaints and then they began to move at a more respectable speed.

Even as they moved though all three gennin mused on the same issue, though brought on by what they thought were just odd dreams. As the trees and roads moved past them, almost blurring the three gennin of Konoha's Team Seven mused on what the future might bring for them.

Author's Notes:

WOOHOO!!! Finished!

This actually represents my first complete non-one shot story on FF.N and I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed for the feedback and I hope even those who chose not to review enjoyed it as well.

I'm also taking this opportunity to officially open the floor when it comes to the use of Mai for other stories in a similar vein for non-Team Seven characters. Since a full description of her, especially in terms of personality would probably violate FF.N's rules about oversized author's notes, especially at the end of a chapter as short as this one is. So instead if anyone's interested, drop me a line and I'll type up a more complete description of the character and send it to you. All I ask is a chance to beta before you post it anywhere.

I would also like to take this opportunity to recommend 'Suiren' by Eimii on FF.N for anyone looking for really good Naruto fanfiction. She's the one who I 'borrowed' the concept of the 'Non Yaoi Warning' from (gomen nasai Eimii-sama!) and her writing is really good, especially if you're a fan of Sakura. Heck, 'Suiren' is probably enough to change all but the hardest Sakura-hater into a Sakura fan, at least how Eimii rights her. /shameless plug

Once again, thank you everyone, both for your support and patience and for those reading my other works, fear not for now I turn my attention back to 'Revealed.'


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